Just read a Bloomberg News article, “Proview Using ‘IPad’ Name is Harmful: Apple,” that quotes me on the Apple-Proview dispute, as follows: “It’s not really trademark law, it’s about whether the trademark was legally transferred or not,” Dan Harris, a Seattle-based lawyer with Harris & Moure who handles cases on intellectual property in China, said… Continue Reading
Monthly Archives: February 2012
How To Survive A China Joint Venture
Posted in Legal NewsEarlier this week, I was talking with a potential client regarding a potential China Joint Venture (JV). In our initial conversation, I told him of how difficult and yet important it is to do joint ventures correctly from a legal perspective and of how negotiating joint venture deals can be so time consuming. I then… Continue Reading
Dumplings For Sale. Chinese Migrant Life.
Posted in Recommended ReadingJust read a fascinating article by Tricia Wang, entitled, Dumplings for Sale. Ms. Wang is in the process of getting her Ph.d in Sociology at USCD and writing a book on technology and China. I have been a big fan of Ms. Wang going way back to the days when she was writing the YouMeiT… Continue Reading
Four Tips For Learning Mandarin (Chinese).
Posted in China BusinessThe following is a guest post from Corinne Dillon, founder of Discover Mandarin, an online Chinese language school. Many regular readers of this blog are either Chinese speakers or aspiring Chinese language students. For those of you in the latter category, if this is the year you’ve decided to fully commit yourself to learning Mandarin,… Continue Reading
An Overview On Doing Business In China.
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsThe Legal Insight Blog has a long and comprehensive post, entitled, “Overview of Doing Business in China.” And that is exactly what it is. Written by King & Wood, one of China’s leading law firms, the post sets out the basics of China’s systems as they relate to business and it does so very clearly… Continue Reading
Will China Escape The Middle Income Trap?
Posted in EventsOrville Schell and Peter Schiff contend that China’s brand of state-directed capitalism has the resilience to come out on top of the global market. Ian Bremmer and Minxin Pei put their money on the American model despite its faltering in recent years. Where do you stand? Intelligence Squared U.S., in partnership with Slate, promises… Continue Reading
Breaking News. (THE) Michael Jordon Sues In Chinese Court To Protect His Name. Jeremy Lin, Are You Watching?
Posted in Legal NewsJust learned that Michael Jordan filed a lawsuit today against Qiaodan Sports Company Limited — a Chinese sportswear and footwear manufacturer – for unauthorized use of his name and identity. According to the complaint, filed by the Jun He and Fangda Partners law firms, Qiaodan Sports has misused Michael Jordan’s name and identity on Qiaodan… Continue Reading
China Eases Foreign Film Quota. Maybe.
Posted in China Business, China Film Industry, Legal NewsBy: Mathew Alderson It’s hard not to get carried away by Hollywood’s breathless reaction to the US-China film deal announced during Xi Jinping’s recent visit to LA and apparently struck in “down to the wire” talks with Vice President Joe Biden. The deal is variously described as a ‘trade accord’ or a ‘trade agreement’. Whatever… Continue Reading
Anatomy Of A China Scam. Part II. Conclusion And Advice.
Posted in China BusinessEarlier this week, we ran part I of this two part series. Part I consisted of Jennie Shi, Felix Zhang, Wendy Zheng and Robert Walsh, all of Samsara Biopharma Consulting, writing of an incident they investigated in which their client had been scammed by an alleged chemical seller based in China. The client had purchased… Continue Reading
Anatomy Of A China Scam. Part I. Just The Facts.
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsMany months ago, a friend of mine at Samsara Biopharma Consulting told me of a matter his company had taken on to try to help a company that appeared to have been scammed by a Chinese chemical seller. I frequently hear of such scams in the chemical industry so I asked my friend if he… Continue Reading
China’s “Living Wage.” What Is it?
Posted in China BusinessJust read a CNN article entitled, “When will workers share in Apple’s wealth?” This article was written by Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, a “labor rights-monitoring organization that investigates working conditions in factories around the world. Nova attacks Apple on many fronts in his article, but it is the following that… Continue Reading
Forming A China WOFE. Do It Right. Use A Good Accountant.
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsDeleting old emails and came across this one, which I have greatly modified: I moved to China this year and set up a trading company based in Hong Kong. I have real confidence in an idea for a ________ service similar to what www.______.com provides. I feel that a similar service based in Shenzhen could… Continue Reading
Wharton China Business Forum. Tomorrow in Philadelphia.
Posted in EventsI will tomorrow (Saturday, February 18) be on a panel at the Wharton China Business Forum. The forum/conference is going to take place in the Jon M. Huntsman Hall at the Wharton School in Philadelphia. It will run from 9 am until 6:30 pm. ou can buy very reasonably priced tickets here. There will be… Continue Reading
Apple v. Proview. China Trademarks And So Much To Learn.
Posted in Legal NewsA reporter called me the other day on the Apple-Proview trademark kerfuffle. She kept wanting me to give her a quote on what foreign companies should take away from this dispute and I kept parrying with her, unable to give her just one. I kept finding myself saying “it’s probably more complicated than that.” … Continue Reading
Overtime Pay In China. What Ya Gonna Do?
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsThe following is an email on which I was cc’ed from one of our lawyers to a client regarding paying overtime to employees in China. I am running it here because we are so often asked about China’s overtime requirements and because they are so different from those in the United States. Speaking overly generally,… Continue Reading
Do The Walls Have Ears, Part II: Traveling To China Naked. Electronically, That Is.
Posted in China Business“Paranoia is just having the right information.” ― William S. Burroughs Just when I think I cannot get any more paranoid. The New York Times just came out with an article, entitled, “Traveling Light in a Time of Digital Thievery” (h/t Learn China Business), on how various U.S. government agencies and think tanks and companies… Continue Reading
Big City China Salaries
Posted in China BusinessDanwei.com did a blog post on a recent J.M. Gemini salary survey of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou. The salary survey is extensive in that it consists of about 25 pages of salary estimates for a whole slew of different jobs in these three cities. The survey itself points out that the salaries listed are just… Continue Reading
Sourcing From China. The Captive Buyer Issue.
Posted in China BusinessAbout a month ago, we did a post, entitled, “Buying A Chinese Company? Why China Deals DON’T Get Done,” on why (in our experience) so few deals to buy Chinese companies actually close. Our explanation was that the cost structure of a Chinese domestic company is going to radically increase when and if it becomes… Continue Reading
The End Of Cheap China, Part V. Even More On How YOU Must Prepare For It.
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsIn part IV of our continuing series on the end of cheap China and the impacts arising from that, co-blogger Steve Dickinson wrote about the increased risks product buyers are facing from their China-based manufacturers. That post concluded with Steve talking about why paying your Chinese manufacturer in advance for product can be so risky…. Continue Reading
Another China WTO Loss. Another Nail In The Coffin Of World Trade.
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsBy: Steve Dickinson Preserving its track record of major defeats before the WTO, China recently lost its appeal of the WTO panel decision in the minerals export case. The appeal decision was issued on January 30 and can be found here. Briefly stated, the original panel report held that Chinese export duties and export quotas… Continue Reading
Dr. Clarisse von Wunschheim On Arbitrating Your China Disputes, Part III. Is Enforcement Overemphasized?
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsThis is part III (the last) of Dr. Clarisse von Wunschheim’s three part series of guest posts on China arbitration. I asked Dr. von Wunschheim to write this series because arbitration is so important to so many China transactions and she literally wrote the book on China arbitration: Enforcement of Commercial Arbitral Awards in China. … Continue Reading
Dr. Clarisse von Wunschheim On Arbitrating Your China Disputes, Part II. Inside Or Outside China?
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsThis is part II of Dr. Clarisse von Wunschheim’s series of guest posts on China arbitration. I asked Dr. von Wunschheim to write this series because arbitration is of such crucial importance to so many China transactions and she literally wrote the book on China arbitration: Enforcement of Commercial Arbitral Awards in China. More from… Continue Reading
Dr. Clarisse von Wunschheim On Arbitrating Your China Disputes, Part I. The Legal Context.
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsWe are always writing on the importance of China contracts having a well-crafted dispute resolution provision. My favorite line about this is the following, from the post, “Arbitration In Your China Contract. Adult Supervision Required“: With sushi restaurants, it’s the yellow-fin. With new houses, it’s the windows. With international contracts, it’s the dispute resolution provision…. Continue Reading
The End Of Cheap China, Part IV. More On How YOU Must Prepare For It.
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsBy: Steve Dickinson In my previous post in this series on the end of cheap China, I noted that the risks relating to purchases from Chinese manufacturers are rising in the export sector in China’s Eastern provinces. Given the risks, it surprises me that I still see many buyers who continue to use the worst… Continue Reading
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