The Five Keys To International Trade Secret Protection
The Five Keys To International Trade Secret Protection. It all stars with figuring out what exactly needs protection.
Protecting Your IP from an Increasingly Rapacious China
Fraying relations between China and the West have incrased incidences of Chinese companies "grabbing" IP from foreign companies. This post explains what you can do to prevent this.
The Ten Keys to Preventing Counterfeiting of Your Products
The ten things you should be doing now to prevent (or at least minimize) the counterfeiting of your products.
Lockdowns and China Service Providers
In recent months, the lockdowns brought on by China’s attempts to achieve zero-COVID have wreaked havoc on China’s manufacturing base and its supply chains. See The China Supply Chain Nightmare: It Is Time to Panic. But it’s not just manufacturing that is suffering. As I confirmed during a recent conference, China’s service providers are also
China NNN Agreements: Essential and NOT for Trade Secrets
When my law firm’s international manufacturing lawyers work on international manufacturing arrangements, we never just draft a “straight NDA.” Instead, we draft a “non-disclosure/non-use/non-circumvention agreement” that we refer to as an NNN Agreement. Why? Because a Western-style NDA is worthless or worse for China. For China, you need a China-specific NNN Agreement. 1. China NNN
AI and Copyright in China
Ownership of copyright by nonhumans is not allowed in China, but increasing AI capabilities could spur changes in legal thinking.
China Copyright Protection for Applied Art
With no explicit provisions in China's copyright law for the protection of works of applied art, courts have until now used different approaches when considering the issue. In some cases, protection has been extended based on the protections afforded to works of fine art. However, in last year's Guiding Case No. 157 (指导案例157号), the Supreme People's Court (SPC) endorsed the view that works of applied art are entitled to copyright protection in their own right.
IP Protection in the Global Marketplace
I recently joined GlobalAutoIndustry.com‘s Ron Hesse for an interview on IP and Trademark Protection in the Global Marketplace. Ron and I discussed why going abroad is a gamechanger for companies’ IP strategies, and how they can prioritize IP protection efforts as they enter multiple new markets. We also talked about the impact of the COVID-19
China Trademark Squatters: A Danger for All
When it comes to China IP protection, one of the greatest mistakes a brand can make is failing to register its trademarks in China. An unregistered trademark is a tempting target for trademark squatters (and other bad-faith actors, such as unscrupulous competitors), who register trademarks in the hopes of a payday from legitimate owners. China trademark squatters are looking for victims all the time. What's more, they will take their chances on just about any trademark, regardless of how small the brand, as long as there is a chance their bet will pay off. And given that it's not very costly to register a mark in China, the chances of success don't have to be high for the gamble to make economic sense.
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.