Every few months we get an email from someone requesting our China business lawyers prevent the Chinese government from shutting down their business. Something is definitely afoot in China right now as we received three such emails just this week. The following is a composite of these three emails: We set up a WFOE and
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
Every few months our China lawyers get a call from someone wanting to shut down their China WFOE (Wholly Owned Foreign Entity). These calls usually come from companies that have been in China for a long time (average time, maybe ten years). Their reasons for seeking to leave China are all over the map, but
Clients, potential clients and the press are always asking our China lawyers what foreign companies that do business in China need to know to stay out of legal trouble. Next time I get such a question, I will refer them to the list below as it sets out the most common legal issues foreign companies
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
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 foreign firms to set up in China? Because the inherent limitations
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 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 to post it wholesale
This morning, I received a cc of an email one of our China employments lawyers sent to a software client of ours for whom we just started working on their China employment law issues after having registered their WFOE. The email explains the various employment documents we prepared for them, but it serves as a
