With the US Supreme Court recently holding the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) unconstitutional, the writing is pretty much on the wall that gay marriage will be legal in all or most of the United States within five to ten years. What about China? How does China view gays and gay marriage? For answers to
VIE stands for variable interest entity and they are entities used to allow a company in China to technically be a Chinese domestic company, but be de facto controlled by a foreign-owned entity or entities. VIE structures are usually used to allow foreign companies to get involved in various sectors of China’s economy forbidden to
English Translations of Chinese Laws Every couple of weeks, someone asks one of our China lawyers for an English translation of a Chinese law or cites one of our blog posts as an explanation for a decision they made or are contemplating making. The Pitfalls of Using Translated Chinese Laws for Decision Making China’s laws
Whenever I give a speech or write an article or post about what it takes to succeed in international outsourced manufacturing , I invariably list “a good partner” as item one. Perhaps not surprisingly, I am always getting asked how to find the “good partner”. My initial response is usually to say “with great care.”
Companies seeking to form a China WFOE are often confused about WFOE minimum registered capital requirements. Part of the confusion stems from disreputable entity formation companies that claim to know exactly how much will be required and boast of their ability to get the Chinese government to agree to a low amount. Under Chinese law,
A number of our clients manufacture products that sell for relatively high prices due in large part to distinguishing characteristics of our client’s company or product. In other words, the exact kind of product counterfeiters love to copy. Not sure why, but we have been spending more time lately in helping our clients prevent counterfeiting
Renaud Anjoran over at the Quality Inspection Tips blog recently wrote on How your Chinese suppliers might become your competitors. Renaud provides excellent suggestions for preventing your foreign product supplier from competing with you, based on his notes from a talk by Paul Melkebeke, Samsonite’s Vice President for Asia. Melkebeke talked of how Samsonite protects
Ever since the New York Times did an article, Wary of China, Companies Head to Cambodia, on companies leaving China for Cambodia, there has been media and play and real life discussions on how “everyone” is leaving China for places like Cambodia or Thailand or Vietnam or Mexico or Indonesia or Taiwan. First, let’s look
Product manufacturing in China’s coastal regions has become increasingly challenging for manufacturers and buyers alike. Wages and rent have risen dramatically over the past five years while at the same time the economies of major buyers have suffered severe setbacks. This has put tremendous pressure on the small and medium businesses that make up the
One of my law firm’s international trade lawyers recently got an email from a company that was having a problem with one of its employees. This employee had left the company and at that moment the company realized it should have made this employee sign various trade secret agreements long ago. They came to us
