China Law Blog’s Midwest Tour: Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago, Cincinnati (June 19 – 23)

My Midwest roots run deep (Michigan, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana and Iowa, mostly), so I tend to seize on any excuse to return there. I will have that excuse in droves later this month as I will be speaking on China in three Midwest cities and serving as a “China legal expert” in a fourth.

Cleveland will be first on my Midwest tour and I will be speaking there on June 19 before the Greater Cleveland Chamber of Commerce. Go here to register. My speech is entitled How to Protect Your Business in China, and among other things, I will be discussing the following:

• How to choose the right China partner
• How to identify the IP assets you need to protect
• How to structure your China deal
• How to draft your China contracts to protect your company and your IP
• What you should know about China trademarks, patents, copyrights, and licensing agreements

Then on June 20 and 21, I will be in Detroit, Michigan (a mere 2 hours by car from where I grew up) as a “legal expert” at Alibaba’s Gateway ’17. This event as being billed as part of Jack Ma’s making good on his promise to help create one million new jobs in America. See Alibaba Takes First Step To Fulfilling Jack Ma And President Trump’s ‘One Million U.S. Jobs’ Promise. My role at this event will be to talk to the media and to SME participants about the legal aspects of selling products to China, especially online. Spoiler Alert: I will mostly be focusing on the need to file for English language trademarks and patents and copyrights in China before selling products there and consider creating Chinese language names and filing for those too. This event has a ton of great speakers and a ton of great breakout sessions and if you can possibly attend, you should.

I then head to Chicago where on June 22 I will speak at the 13th Annual Product Liability Prevention Seminar. I have spoken at this conference many times and always enjoyed it because of the other speakers and the attendees, most of whom are involved with product manufacturing around the world. My talk will focus on the legal aspects of China manufacturing, emphasizing the role of contracts and IP.

Then it’s on to Cincinnati, where on June 23 I will be giving a lunchtime talk before the Cincinnati Chinese Chamber of Commerce on how to use the law to protect your business in China. Go here to register. My talk will be followed by a Town Hall discussion moderated by my good friend Jeff Holtmeier, with whom I have worked on many a China deal, mostly involving health care and technology. Jeff is the real deal and I am very much looking forward to being on a panel with him. So again, please come!

Then it’s back to the salt mines….

We will be discussing the practical aspects of Chinese law and how it impacts business there. We will be telling you what works and what does not and what you as a businessperson can do to use the law to your advantage. Our aim is to assist businesses already in China or planning to go into China, not to break new ground in legal theory or policy.