International Manufacturing Lawyers

How to Calculate Your China Risks

As the Chinese government continues to expand its power and get more concerned about its slowing economy and how it is viewed by its citizens, it just keeps getting tougher on foreign businesses that are not 100% abiding by its laws. China is right now in one of its perpetual crackdowns on foreign companies doing business in China. This makes now a good time for foreign companies doing business in China or with China to determine their China risks. The following questions are a good starting point for making that calculation.

Read More
Chinese Free Look Schemes to Steal your IP

Chinese Free Look Schemes to Steal your IP

Last week, I wrote about how Chinese companies use fake investment scams to trick foreign companies into turning over their IP. This post goes into additional detail regarding the China fake investment scam, but it also goes beyond it to ecompass the various IP theft scams our China lawyers have been seeing in the last couple of years.

Read More
worthless China contracts

Is Your China Contract Worthless?

Pretty much every week, at least one of our China lawyers will -- after a five minute review -- have to tell a potential client their contract is worthless. We see all kinds of worthless contracts. NDA and NNN Agreements, Manufacturing Agreements, Licensing Agreements, Distribution Agreements, Product Development Agreements, Employment Agreements. It goes on and on. And as tempted as I am to ask why these companies would think a US law contract that calls for disputes to be resolved in Boston or Des Moines would make sense in China, I always refrain from doing so, and I have seen some doozies, including the following:

Read More
Translate contracts for China

Translate Your Contract For China? Not Gonna Do It

Every few months someone will write one of my law firm's China lawyers asking them to translate an already written contract for China. We always refuse, not just because we are lawyers not translators, but because doing so would be a complete waste of time because contracts that work for the United States, Europe, Australia, Canada, etc., do not work for China and putting those contracts into Chinese won't change that. Indeed, it is ridiculous to think that an American business owner could draft a contract in English and that contract would work for China.

Read More
China NNN Agreements

China NNN Agreements and How to Give Them Real Teeth

As I noted in my previous post on China NNN agreements, for enforcement purposes you must make sure your China NNN agreement has teeth. To understand how enforcement works under Chinese law, we need to do a little work. The first point to realize is that the standard approach for enforcing an IP contract under the common law (this is the law in the United States and the UK and most of the British world) has no application under Chinese law. In the common law system, lawyers are mostly concerned with two issues. First, the rule that disfavors liquidated damage provisions. Second, the law/equity distinction that allows only for injunctive relief when a law (damages) remedy is not available.

Read More
How to Draft Enforcable China Contracts

How to Draft an Enforceable China Contract

If you want to greatly increase your chances of being able to enforce your contract with your Chinese counter-party company, you should do the below. You should do a lot more than this, both within and outside your contract, but I am limiting this post to just those things directly and nearly always necessary for enforcing a Chinese contract and its terms) Have a written contract. Have the written contract set out how disputes will be resolved and, more importantly, set forth the right forum for those disputes; Have Chinese be the official language of your contract if it is going to be enforced in China, which usually (but not always) makes sense; Have the written contract set out in excruciating detail what the Chinese company must do to comply with the contract; Set out the damages the Chinese company must pay if it fails to comply with the contract; Make sure the Chinese company signs and seals your contract.

Read More
China online gaming IP

China Online Gaming IP

China presents a wealth of opportunities for foreign gaming companies, but (and this is true of pretty much every IP-laden industry), it also presents substantial risks. This post sets out the basics on how online gaming companies can protect their IP in China via China IP registrations. Though our law firm represents a host (sort-of-pun intended) of online gaming companies, we have been hesitant to write specifically about largely because it is not all that legally different from other industries. But because we have lately been getting emails requesting we do so, we will. Starting now.

Read More
China Employee Contract Renewals

China Employee Contract Renewals

When our employer clients seek our counsel on new China employee hires, we usually (but not always) advise they use an initial fixed term of three years. We also recommend that before the initial employment term is up, they consider whether to extend the employee’s contract for a second employment term.

Read More
Keep your IP safe from China by using an appropriate NNN agreement

China NNN Agreements

China NNN Agreements are usually THE key to protecting your IP against China. Done right, they are nearly flawless. Done wrong (which nearly all are) they are worse than nothing at all. In this post, I explain the basics on how to draft a China NNN Agreement that will work. 

Read More
Nonprofits in China

Nonprofits in China

At the end of each calendar year, many nonprofit organizations, including nonprofits in China, start to appear more frequently on everyone’s radar. Recently I counseled a nonprofit organization that wanted to set up China operations in some way. Technically they are a U.S. not-for-profit (501(c)(6)) organization, rather than a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit, but I use

Read More