Just read an article, What do Suppliers do with Rejected Products? that starts with the following nightmare scenario: Imagine you are walking down a busy street in China full of vendors. Suddenly, you notice something: your company’s flagship product, distinctive luxury handbags, is being sold by a random merchant you have never met. Upon closer inspection,
With the last quarter of the year approaching and with China increasing its scrutiny of foreign businesses operating in China, now seems like the right time to talk about what foreign businesses (WFOEs, joint ventures, representative offices) should be doing to protect themselves on the China compliance front. If you have familiarized yourself with applicable
Generally speaking, China employees must be employed under a written employment contract. Such a contract may be for a fixed or an indefinite term. When it comes to unilaterally terminating an employment contract, China employment law does not treat the employee and the employer as equal parties; the employee has much more power than the
One common mistake U.S. companies make is failing to understand that patents and trademarks are territorial.* That is, these forms of intellectual property provide protection only in the country in which they were registered. If a U.S. company has not registered its patents and trademarks in China, a Chinese company is free to make use
With Amazon and Ebay having increased their efforts at bringing in Chinese sellers and with Chinese manufacturers branching out and making their own products, the number of companies contacting our international intellectual property lawyers about problems with counterfeit products and knockoffs has soared. If the problem involves infringing products being imported into the United States,
It goes without saying you should choose good business partners abroad. The kind of partner that doesn't like getting sued ... and hence doesn't give you reason to sue them. Partners that won't steal your IP. But just how can you know a partner is reliable before you do business with them and put them to the acid test?
The first step for drafting an international product sales agreement is to deal with the basic sales terms. The terms for customization and cooperative design can come later.
Chinese factories are notorious for making their own-label products that bear a strong resemblance to the products they make for their foreign company manufacturing companies. And here's the thing: it is perfectly legal for your Chinese factory to copy your products unless you have a contract forbidding it. And it is also perfectly legal for them to use your brand name in China (or even to register it as their own trademark) if you have not registered your brand name as a China trademark.
China basketball: Where is the Joy? I am convinced I can understand about 50% of a country by going into five of its grocery stores and by watching five basketball games of its best players. I have a friend who is a dancer, and she says she can understand a country by watching its people
The U.S. Government has been cracking the whip on products illegally transshipped from China. Chinese companies and U.S. importers of their products often tell me they are not concerned about U.S. Antidumping (“AD”) and Countervailing Duty (“CVD”) orders because they can “just get around those orders by transshipping our products to Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines, Sri
