Quick Question Friday: China Law Answers, Part 71

Because of this blog, our China lawyers get a fairly steady stream of China law questions from readers, mostly via emails but occasionally via blog comments or phone calls as well. If we were to conduct research on all the questions we get asked and then comprehensively answer them, we would become overwhelmed. So what we usually do is provide a quick general answer and, when it is easy to do so, a link or two to a blog post that provides some additional guidance. We figure we might as well post some of these on here as well. On Fridays, like today.

One of the questions both our China lawyers our China lawyers have been getting frequently of late — especially from the media — is whether it is possible too protect your IP from China.

To which I always start out with a lawyer answer: yes, maybe and no.

Yes, if you are making a product that the Chinese government does not care about, such as toys, furniture, clothing, most electronics, etc. But if you are making something the Chinese government really does care about, like high speed rail, or cutting edge semiconductors or cutting edge energy technology, the answer is maybe/no. Let’s just say that our China IP lawyers generally drafting contracts and doing China IP registrations for an IoT company than for a semiconductor company simply because we have a lot more confidence in the results we can achieve for the IoT company than for the semiconductor company and we tell our clients that. Nonetheless, even the semiconductor companies must do what they can (both legally and via their own protective systems) to protect against IP theft, otherwise, if that theft happens, they will have no legal arguments against it.

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.