File for Your China Trademark in China, not Madrid Whenever clients ask about China trademark registration through the Madrid System, my advice is pretty straightforward: filing directly with the Chinese Trademark Office (CTMO) is almost always the smarter choice. China’s Trademark System China’s trademark system is a bit of a maze—complex, idiosyncratic, and highly regimented.
Old pirates, yes, they rob I Sold I to the merchant ships — Bob Marley’s Redemption Song 1. The Canton Fair The 125th Canton Fair will kick off on April 15th. For those unfamiliar with this event (formally known as the China Import and Export Fair), it is China’s largest trade show, held biannually in
1. China’s New Foreign Investment Law Under U.S. pressure, China recently adopted a new Foreign Investment Law 中华人民共和国外商投资法 (“FIL”) that had been under discussion for several years. Many believe this law will lead to foreign invested enterprises being treated the same as domestic Chinese private businesses. Unfortunately (and not surprisingly), the existing system that limits
An article titled, Kickstarter Prototype to Production: $100K is not Enough, is getting a lot of play on Linkedin among the China manufacturing crowd, with those I know who know China manufacturing agreeing with it. The article provides compelling reasons why getting an electronics product manufactured in China will nearly always require more than $100,000.
1. The Huawei Indictments On January 28, the U.S. Department of Justice unsealed two indictments against Huawei. The first indictment concerns ongoing claims against Huawei and its CFO, Meng Wanzhou, for allegedly violating U.S. sanctions against Iran. The second and more interesting indictment concerns alleged trade secret thefts by Huawei’s U.S. subsidiary under the direction
The purpose of a trademark, from both a legal and branding perspective, is to identify the source of goods. It follows, therefore, that the best trademarks are both memorable and distinctive. You want people to associate your brand with your company, not confuse your brand with other brands. You also want to make sure your
In the past few months, our China lawyers have been seeing something new and troubling with China licensing agreements. Before I explain, let me step back and give a bit of history. This post is important so please stay with me. In a typical China licensing deal the foreign licensor grants the Chinese licensee the
Everything China comes in waves and China trademark “theft” is no different. When we first started this blog back in 2006, we would get a call just about every week from someone wanting to sue a Chinese company blocking the company’s product from leaving China. We hated those calls because most of the time our
Currently, the number one film in China is the smash hit Hello Mr. Billionaire (US$306M and counting). It’s a comedy about a hapless soccer player who stands to inherit 30 billion RMB, but only if he can spend 1 billion RMB in a month (albeit with a number of complicated conditions, like no gambling, donating
China wants foreign technology and it understands it must pay for it. This is not to say China IP licensing deals are not without their own brand of major and minor pitfalls. Proposed China licensing deals that involve the foreign company One of the risky things our China licensing lawyers constantly see are proposed China
