Since 2006, we have been writing about fake China law firms. See China Where Even The “Law Firms” Are Fake. In that post we talked about fake Chinese lawyers taking money from American companies for trademark registrations: There are those who take money to file trademarks in China and then simply run away. A new client
As we pointed out in SaaS in China: Build a compliant Go-to-Market Plan by Looking Beyond the Regulations and again in Foreign SaaS in China: Get Off of My Cloud, the PRC does not permit foreign entities to make direct sales of SaaS products from servers located within China. For foreign software companies, this is a major
The Wall Street Journal just published an article on the threat the proposed PRC foreign investment law poses for companies that used the VIE structure to enter into prohibited business sectors in China. Among the companies in the cross hairs are a number of major foreign businesses such as Amazon, Pearson and CBS. Add to
As businesses are rapidly moving to the cloud, the Chinese government seems to be taking its lead from the Rolling Stones: Hey! You! Get off of my cloud. China wants to run its own private cloud, and foreigners need not apply. The primary issue for Internet businesses in China is that all commercial Internet businesses
Media reports state that online gambling in China soared during the recent World Cup. The punters put their money into online gambling on the World Cup, with revenue at China’s government run lottery site increasing by over 80% during this period. The general ban on gambling in China is subject to one exception. The Chinese
A technology company contacted one of our China lawyers months after having started selling its software into China. This company came to us seeking help in deciding whether to continue selling its software from the United States or to form a China WFOE and start selling through that entity. The first thing we told this
VIE stands for variable interest entity and they are entities used to allow a company in China to technically be a Chinese domestic company, but be de facto controlled by a foreign-owned entity or entities. VIE structures are usually used to allow foreign companies to get involved in various sectors of China’s economy forbidden to
When I served on a China panel at Berkeley’s Haas School of Business last month, I met Dan Maas, who asked me for my thoughts on what had been happening to World of Warcraft in China. It took me about ten seconds to figure out Dan knew far more about what was happening on that
In Cashing in on Internet Censorship, CNN News writes how business for Virtual Private Network (VPN) companies is booming these days, thanks largely to China and Iran. The article discusses how “foreign companies are profiting from software that allows circumvention of government internet controls.” The article quotes one of my law firm’s international attorneys on how
China is watching you. I am convinced about 99.9% of all emails go through. But to me, that means at least a few of the emails I send each week will not reach its destination. If I do not hear back from someone rather quickly, I just assume they did not get my email and
