By Benjamin Ross

China and the US have been in the news again, and this time it’s about intellectual property rights. The US is accusing China of not taking intellectual property laws seriously. China has responded by giving the US the proverbial middle finger. Here’s my take.

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To Jim van Drunen Littel the Netherlands were always going to be too small. Bilingually raised and working for one of the best known consumer goods companies in the world, he goes international in 1986. Successfully managing a territory stretching from India to Japan for a large tobacco company, it is then time to realise other personal ambitions. Starting his own enterprise and learning Chinese, those are his goals. Van Drunen Littel goes back to university and lives with a Chinese family for several months to get a good understanding of the Chinese culture. In the meantime he’s working on getting One2Call started: Interpretation, City Directions, Yellow Pages, Lonely Planet and lots more. All in one phone based service. In between calls he gives us a few golden tips.

“First of all it’s useful for every foreign businessman in China to have insight into Read the rest of “Advanced Golden China tips” or post a comment

By Andrew Hupert

The ex-pat manager’s conundrum in China: how do you protect your IP when your IP is both your product and your sales pitch? For many service-oriented businesses, the very ideas that they are guarding from being stolen must be displayed and discussed in order to promote their business. No one will buy a design or consulting service if they have no idea about what the designer or consultant is talking about. But once that designer or consultant describes his creative ideas, he is in danger of having those ideas pilfered.
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On his first visit to China in 2004, Alexander de Nerée liked what he saw. So when he was asked to set up De Nerée Advocates in Hong Kong, it did not take him long to decide.
“I am really fascinated by China, but I also feel fortunate to be living in Hong Kong. Hong Kong is really ‘China-light’. Not so much fun, but healthier for you. With the fairly Westernised attitude of the Hong Kong people and the relatively high standard of English, the business climate for foreigners is better here then in most parts of China. It’s like Switzerland in Asia. Everything is well-organised and clean.”

So there is not much work to do for lawyers in Hong Kong then? “Quite the opposite. Many businesses choose Hong Kong as their base to start operations in Asia. An obvious choice: all the leading banks, insurers and accountants are around the corner. Hong Kong also plays an important role because of its favourable tax regulations and the excellent legal infrastructure. It is actually a sort of ‘home away from home’. A safe haven to start if you are looking to do business in mainland China. Where of course other legal concepts and basic business rules apply. In that last category, when clients ask about do’s and don’ts I generally advise them to Read the rest of “Lawyer’s advice on legal self-protection in China” or post a comment