China Distributor Relationships Make Sense, Especially Now My law firm’s China lawyers have written more product distribution agreements in the last three years than in the ten years prior. This is happening because foreign companies want to profit from China’s consumer and industrial markets, but they are wary of going into the country in a
Virtually every Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA) our China lawyers see is defective. One of the things that most frequently makes them defective is that they call for disputes to be resolved in a U.S. court. The problem is that Chinese courts do not enforce US court judgments and so even if the American company prevails
One of the most common calls our China lawyers get is the one from someone saying they want to “start a business in China.” The first thing we do with that sort of caller is to seek to ascertain whether a China business is actually necessary. Forming and then operating a business entity in China
In 1995, a Chinese company registered the name Ai Ma Shi, which is what Chinese call Hermès. Hermes has for a long time sought to take away the Chinese company’s trademark registration of Ai Ma Shi and secure it for itself. Chinese courts have consistently ruled against Hermès and a Chinese court did so again
Switching Employers in China and Keeping Your Work Permit China’s faltering economy has led to job losses for Chinese citizens and foreigners alike and my law firm has been seeing an increasing volume of emails from foreign employees seeking legal assistance regarding their China work permits. Navigating employer switches in China requires preparation and —
Though we often talk generally about what it takes to form a company in China, a loyal reader recently wrote to point out that we have never set out the basic steps one must take to do so. The following sets out the basic steps foreigners usually must take to form a Wholly Foreign Owned
I spoke yesterday at the 2010 U.S. China Business Conference in Atlanta. I was tasked with talking about the legal issues American businesses face in China and the legal issues Chinese businesses face in the United States. I was given ten minutes. The below is my speech: I am going to be talking about the
China Represenative Offices Why Representative Offices in China Seldom Make Sense I am always saying that for every 100 China WFOEs and Joint Ventures my law firm helps set up in China, it does one representative office. Why so few, when it is generally agreed that representative offices are the easiest type of offices for
David Wolf at The Silicon Hutong blog just came out with a superb post riffing on the meaning of guanxi. The post A Few Notes on Guanxi [Link no longer exists] more accurately and concisely defines guanxi than anything I’ve seen. It is so good and so important, I feel I have no choice but
Just got the below comment (#63 on our post, China: First Let’s Clear Out The Long Time Foreigners) posing important questions and leaving hanging some common misconceptions about doing business in China: So here’s my question albeit already bounced around but no solid answer given…. JV or WFOE for a new foreign company launching in
