“It’s Hollywood, it’s a strong industry for America and it’s symbolic” Dan Harris an international lawyer advising clients doing business in China, told The Telegraph.
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“It’s Hollywood, it’s a strong industry for America and it’s symbolic” Dan Harris an international lawyer advising clients doing business in China, told The Telegraph.
“With the film industry there are levers China can pull and push as much as they want. That’s what we’re hearing they’re now doing. It’s a matter of degree, but it’s being ramped up and and it will continue to escalate. All of a sudden you realise there are no Western movies.”
“Our clients and industry sources are telling us there is to be a de facto ban on U.S. content in the theatrical and streaming sectors,” said Beijing-based entertainment attorney Mathew Alderson, a partner at Harris Bricken, an international law firm whose China office has several U.S. clients. “As far as I’m aware, the policy has not been written down, and we don’t expect it to be. However, it is coming to the attention of the industry now.”
ReadWhile the executive order Trump signed May 15 has been widely interpreted as written for Huawei, it is worded so broadly that it could be applied to drones or virtually any Chinese-made electronic device associated with the Internet of Things, argues Steve Dickinson on the China Law Blog. “The final result is hard to predict,” he concludes. “What we can say, however, is [that]…relations between China and the United States are on a straight-line decline with no end in sight.”
ReadWith the widely varying regulations, the reality is travelers can’t know what to expect. “Nobody is immune to potentially having their CBD-infused products be seized,” Nathalie Bougenies, an attorney at Harris Bricken who specializes in cannabis law, tells Mic. “Due to the really murky legal status of CBD throughout the country, we have absolutely no way of telling people whether or not it’s legal. So everytime you fly with CBD-infused products, you’re running the risk of your product being seized and potentially being charged with a felony.”
ReadEven if an American brand does not plan to sell in China, the firm should still guard its trademark.
“We were contacted by four European companies that controlled, maybe, around 80 percent of a particular product market,” said lawyer Dan Harris, who advises companies that do business in China. The firms all produced in China but didn’t file for Chinese trademarks. One of their Chinese manufacturers went out and registered all four European brands.
“Once [the Chinese manufacturer] got their China trademark, they told these four companies: you cannot ship product from China anymore. It was a disaster for these four companies,” Harris said.
ReadThe accord now being drawn up to resolve the trade fight between the world’s two largest economies promises better treatment of U.S. companies in China and more Chinese orders for U.S. crops and other products. But rattled businesses on both sides of the Pacific are skittish about rushing back in to revive the once-booming investment activity between the two countries. “There is no way any deal between China and the U.S. will cause everyone on both sides to say, ‘We were just kidding,’” said Dan Harris, managing partner at Harris Bricken, a law firm that specializes in investment with China. “The tariffs and the arrests and the threats and the heightened risk have impacted companies and that will not go away.”
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