China Mold Ownership and Mold Protections Agreements: More Important Now Than Ever

This worry is leading many Chinese manufacturers to view their foreign buyers as likely to eventually leave them and that makes them less interested in doing what it takes to maintain a good long term relationship. For purposes of this post, it also makes Chinese manufacturers a lot more likely now than even a year ago to as quickly as possible purloin whatever they can from their Western buyer so as to be able to as quickly as possible compete with the Western buyer with the Western buyer’s own product.

The China lawyers at my firm have a front row seat to all this because we get emails from many Western companies whose products are being copied weeks after they first meet with a Chinese manufacturer. In the old days (of about a year ago), it usually took years and a deteriorating relationship between buyer and manufacturer before the manufacturer would start directly competing. In other words, Chines manufacturers used to wait until they believed they could make more money selling YOUR product than they could making your product for you before they would compete. Today, many Chinese companies have made the calculation that they can make more money selling your product starting on day one.

What’s all this got to do with mold ownership agreements? A lot.

One of the best ways to stop or slow your Chinese manufacturer from competing with you is by legally blocking it from using your molds for anything other than making products for you. There are a lot of ways to accomplish this, but oftentimes the best way is with a relatively simple mold ownership agreement that makes clear the molds belong to you, your manufacturer cannot use them for anything other than making product for you, and your manufacturer cannot hold on to them once you seek their return. For more on the benefits of protecting your molds (and tooling as well) from China, check out the following:

• Manufacturing in China: Control your Molds (Part 1)
• Manufacturing in China: Control your Molds (Part 2)
• Manufacturing in China: Control your Molds (Part 3)

There are a whole host of other things you can and in many cases should be doing to protect against your own China manufacturer, but a mold agreement is oftentimes a good and relatively cheap start. See Protecting Your Product From China: The 101. 

What are you seeing out there?

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.