I am currently organizing a webinar on PPE transactions with my colleagues in the Florida Bar International Law Section, which will feature Dan Harris as a panelist. As we finalized the agenda, one of my co-organizers observed that fraud overshadowed every other agenda item. Not only do I agree, but this provides the best framework
Are Your International Contracts Built to Fail? With the diversification of supply chains, businesses more often must navigate countries with unpredictable legal systems. This post explains how to create strong contracts for countries with weak contract enforcement. Three Common International Contract Mistakes Over-reliance on Arbitration: Arbitration in a neutral country often does not provide the
I recently spoke with an in-house IP lawyer at a high-tech hardware client that does business all over the world, mostly in emerging market countries with weak intellectual property rights and protections, including China. When it comes to protecting their IP, this company employs what he calls a “Swiss Army Knife approach,” meaning they do
1. How to Avoid Getting Arrested Overseas When my two kids did their foreign study, I told them that they would be bound by the laws in the countries in which they would live/visit and that United States embassies and consulates can do little to help them if arrested. I also talked with them about
One of the things I’ve done since the inception of this blog is try to help young people in trouble in China. Mostly this has involved my telling thousands of English teachers NOT to cause a stink with their employers that have not paid them. I tell them I understand why they are angering at
When someone emails one of our international manufacturing lawyers asking us what they should be considering to protect themselves when manufacturing overseas, we typically respond with something like the following: Our clients that manufacture product in China/Vietnam/Mexico/India/Thailand/Taiwan/Malysia (or wherever it is they are asking about) typically use us for some or all of the following
I saw a Teams chat the other day between one of our international manufacturing lawyers and one of our corporate lawyers. The corporate lawyer had posted a request for an example of a product development contract because one of her American clients was going to be working with another U.S. company to develop a product.
Trademarks are not limited to words or drawings and can include sensory marks such as colors, smells and sounds. In the US, the USPTO recognizes sounds as trademarks if the sounds make you think of a company’s product or service. MGM’s roaring lion, Homer Simpson’s D’OH, and 20th Century Fox’s fanfare are all famous sounds
Many American companies (at least outside California where employee non-competes are generally considered invalid) love non-competes and they use them as a matter of course with most (sometimes all) their employees. Generally, a non-compete agreement or a non-compete provision in an employee contract provides that the employee cannot work for one of the employer’s competitors
Most China watchers have spent the past three months trying to decide what a Biden Presidency means for U.S.-China relations. And over the past week, some China watchers also have been watching as mainland Chinese users flocked to discussions on the Clubhouse app, seemingly without sparking concern among Great Firewall monitors. That brief window into
