Though most of the contracts my law firm writes for our China clients are in Chinese, the first draft is virtually always in English (though sometimes they are in Spanish, Russian, German or Korean). We draft the contract in English and provide that draft to the client for their review. Once the client has given… Continue Reading
Tag Archives: China Contracts
Signing And Chopping A China Contract. It’s Complicated.
Posted in Legal News“Stole” the below from an email on which I was cc’ed from one of my firm’s China lawyers setting forth who from a China SOE (State Owned Entity) should sign its China contract. 1. SOEs have business licenses just like other Chinese companies. 2. Each Chinese company has only one “legal representative” (a term of… Continue Reading
China Contracts Because China Law Does Matter
Posted in Legal NewsFascinating and important post over at the Chinese Law Prof blog today, entitled, “When does law matter in China?” The post and my own experiences lead me to answer by saying “all the time.” But remember mattering is not the same thing as being determinative. Professor Clarke starts his blog post by noting how he… Continue Reading
Five Tips For Doing Business In China. How To Partner In 2013.
Posted in China BusinessJust saw an Inc. Magazine article entitled, “How to Partner in China in 2013.” The article makes a number of good basic points about what it takes to succeed in doing business in China today and I am saying that not just because I contributed two of them. The article’s premise question is “How can… Continue Reading
Myths About China Law And Business
Posted in China Business, Legal NewsBeen a bit consumed preparing for a China seminar I am co-hosting. Today I spoke with Sage Brennan, one of the consumer products panelists and we ran through some possible questions. I threw out the following question as a possibility: ”What are some of the most pervasive myths you see about the Chinese consumer.” Sage’s… Continue Reading
China Contracts Make Sense
Posted in Legal NewsI am constantly asked whether it makes sense to bother having a written contract with a Chinese company. This question is usually followed by the statement that Chinese companies “never follow their contracts” or that “it is impossible to enforce a contract in a Chinese court, anyway.” I always give the following answer: It absolutely… Continue Reading
Do You Know What Your China Contract Says?
Posted in Legal NewsA potential client recently sent me a contract written in both Chinese and in English. The English portions were silent about the controlling language but the Chinese portion made crystal clear that the Chinese language portion would control. And guess what? The Chinese language portion was very different from the English language portion. So different,… Continue Reading
How To Protect Your IP From China. Part 4.
Posted in Legal NewsThis is part four of a series arising from a speech I gave last month at a biotechnology conference in Washington DC. In How To Protect Your IP From China. Part 1, I mostly looked at the risks China poses to intellectual property and very generally on how companies can determine how those risks should influence… Continue Reading
China Contracts. Watching The Jurisdictional Sausage Get Made.
Posted in Basics of China Business Law, Legal NewsAs I am always saying, I love it when my blog posts come pre-written. Today I was cc’ed on an email from my co-blogger, Steve Dickinson. Steve’s email was to another lawyer in our firm who had proposed writing a contract that would give our client the choice of suing its Chinese counter-party in either… Continue Reading
Top Ten China Mistakes
Posted in China BusinessCame across a really good list of mistakes businesspeople make in China. The list, entitled, “Top Ten Mistakes Businessmen Make in China,” was compiled by Stanley Chao, of All In Consulting. It really is a nice collection of tips and I present them below, with my comments in italics. Take the trust factor out. All actions… Continue Reading
Doing Business In Or With China. Ask Yourself These Questions.
Posted in Basics of China Business Law, Legal NewsA consultant friend of mine is leading a very large group of American businesses to China for a big exhibition. He is putting together a short manual for these businesses and he asked me to help put the bug into the ear of these businesses that they should not be ignoring China legal issues. … Continue Reading
China Legal Issues For Business. The Ten Minute Version. Part II.
Posted in Legal NewsI spoke last week (for ten minutes) in Atlanta at NACA’s First Annual US-China Business Conference. I posted that speech (the written version of it, anyway) in a post entitled China Legal Issues For Business. The Ten Minute Version. In going through and deleting old emails today, I came across my first, very different version… Continue Reading
No China Translation. What Were You Thinking?
Posted in Legal NewsThe other day I was stressing to a client how important it is to have a lawyer translate any Chinese-English contract and to emphasize that, I told him of two very similar situations involving United States companies that had fallen way down on their translations. I am going to merge the two situations into one… Continue Reading
How To Cultivate A China Merger Or Acquisition
Posted in China Business, Recommended ReadingThis post was written by Simon Malinowski, a Harris & Moure summer associate. There is a terrific podcast interview between Kent Kedl and Dr. Kim Woodard on deal cultivation in China mergers and acquisitions on the China Business Blog. The podcast is entitled, “Deal Cultivation in China M & A.” and though its focus… Continue Reading
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