BizChina

Global Post is running a five part series on China's high-tech sweat shops (h/t Danwei). Part I is entitled Silicon Sweatshops and from there you will find the link to the other four parts. For those who deal with China every day (or even if you have read the excellent book, The China Price) the main themes of the series will come as no surprise. The themes are that the conditions for and the treatment of workers at many (most/all?) of the factories that manufacture for the leading high tech companies (Apple, Nokia, Microsoft, Dell, etc.) are not up to the standards these companies seem to seek.

The other, somewhat more universal theme is how difficult it is to monitor and control the Chinese companies with whom you work. And whatever the series says about this in terms of labor conditions holds with at least equal force with respect to product quality control.

This is an excellent series for understanding what goes on in China and how difficult it is to really know what is really going on inside the factories you are using. I recommend it.

I am going to have to be vague almost to the point of incoherence here, but if you keep reading, you will understand why.

About three years ago, we brought a very large lawsuit in China, using one of our favorite Chinese law firms. We are representing the plaintiff on this case and we are claiming that another foreign company (with a very large China presence) made a mistake that cost our client. The mistake involved shipping and the issue is a really important one for China. The law ought to be clear and it ought to favor our client, but the Chinese courts have been very reluctant to rule.

We have been stuck at the highest level court of the province (a relatively sophisticated province) for about two years now. The court kept trying to get the parties to settle and that has gone absolutely nowhere. Now the court keeps delaying its ruling, saying the decision is important to China and important for China's foreign affairs.

And so we sit. And sit. And sit.

This is the first time anything like this has ever happened to me and I am wondering if we will get a ruling in my lifetime. Our Chinese law firm has a great relationship with this court and is in constant touch with them and they too are very frustrated.

And so we wait. And wait. And wait.

Ugh.

Anyone else have a similar story?

I am always preaching how foreign companies must register their trademarks in China if they are going to be doing business in or producing product in China (see, for example, "China Trademarks -- Do You Feel Lucky? Do You?"). And in most cases, companies should register their trademarks in China now. Right now.

China is a first to file country, which means that, with very few exceptions, whoever files for a particular trademark in a particular category gets it. So if the name of your company is XYZ and you make shoes and you have been manufacturing your shoes in China for the last three years and someone registers the XYZ trademark for shoes, that other company gets the trademark. And then, armed with the trademark, that company has every right to stop your XYZ shoes from leaving China because they violate its trademark.

But saying a company must register its trademark if it is going to do business in China does, at least to a certain extent, beg the question as to when that company should register the trademark. I always tell our clients and potential clients that they should register their trademarks right away. My thinking on this is that if they are going to be doing it anyway, they should do it right away so as to make sure nobody beats them to it.

But what if you are an American company that is thinking of introducing your product into China in a couple of years? What do you do? Well if you are a massive company with a lot of money, you go ahead and register your trademark right now. But if you are a small company, spending the money now may or may not make sense. Where and how do you draw the line? There is no one answer here; it is more a case of knowing it when you see it.

I thought about all this yesterday because I received a call from a small company that was referred to me by a China sourcing company we represent. The China sourcing company had the foresight to tell this other company (let's call it Company A) that it needed to register its trademark in China before the sourcing company started going out and trying to find manufacturers for Company A's product. But when I spoke with Company A, it immediately became clear to me that its funds were very limited and that it was very unsure if it would even be able to find a manufacturer at a price that would make sense and if it did find that manufacturer, whether its product would catch on in the US or not. Company A's not unreasonable plan was to make a limited quantity as a test run and then, if that worked, secure financing to ramp things up.

Company A: Is a trademark really necessary in China?

Me: It is necessary if you are going to be sure to protect yourself from someone taking your name from you. How important is your name to you? If someone takes it, could you stamp a different name on your product for the next go round?

Company A: I really like our name, but I could always come up with a new one if that were to happen. Do you really think someone is going to register our trademark right away in China?

Me: The odds certainly favor you, but you just never know. You can consider waiting until after you see if your product will have legs.

Company A: I would prefer to do that. Am I taking a huge risk?

Me: A lot depends on whether the worst case scenario of having to come up with a new name is terrible for you or not.

You will never get me to say anything other than how important it is to register your trademark in China right away (because I do not want anyone to be able to blame me if "their" trademark is registered by someone else), but obviously the decision on when to register is sometimes a bit more complicated than that.

What do you think?

"Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of America had better learn baseball, the rules and realities of the game."
Jacques Barzun

I love watching and reading about sports. Always have. Always will. Growing up, I never missed school unless the Cubs were on the television. No way was I going to waste a sick day on I Love Lucy and the Beverly Hillbillies.

Many years ago, a London lawyer friend of mine (who happens to be a baseball fan) was asking me about racism in the United States. I told him of an incident in Ken Burns' amazing documentary, Baseball, that to me, pretty well summed up both the absurdity and shame of American racism. The story (as I remember it now) was Curt Flood (or was it Lou Brock?), an intelligent, thoughtful, and articulate black man, talking about a doubleheader his minor league team played in Arkansas (I think it was Arkansas) where he had to sit out the second game because the local laundry would not wash the clothes of a Black man. I then instructed my friend to read David Halberstam's book, October 1964, which does as good a job of any in explaining American racism. My read it and loved it.

Though I know it to be a total cliche, I cannot resist also pointing out that sports teach you about life. Because they do. Read this amazing article on Walter Payton and then try to dispute that.

All this is a preface to pointing out that there is some excellent China sports writing going on out there in English, of which you should be aware.

The China Sports Review Blog and China Sports Today are both excellent general sports blogs.

China Sports Today describes itself as follows:

From our base in Beijing, China Sports Today covers the Chinese sports world - from professional leagues and Olympic teams to sports marketing and recreational events. Our daily news updates, events calendar (coming soon), guides and listings of relevant locations (coming soon) around China will help you make sense of the rapidly evolving sports scene here.

Whether you are a journalist looking for the names of China's top badminton players, a rugby player looking for a team to play with in Shanghai or a sports fan coming to the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing next August, China Sports Today is your online source.

China Sports Review describes itself as follows:

China Sports Review was established in Oct. 2008, one month after the Beijing Olympics Games, with the objective of providing up-to-date news about China’s sports industry, analysis and opinions on current happenings in the Chinese sports world, as well as information on Chinese sports media, education, culture and history.

And though I am of the Golf is a good walk spoiled view (mostly because I suck at it) I love Dan Washburn's Par for China blog, which he describes as follows:

I am Dan Washburn, an American writer based in Shanghai, China. I am currently researching a book about the development of golf in China. Golf, its emergence and growth in China, is a barometer for the country’s rapid economic rise. But golf is also symbolic of the less glamorous realities of a nation’s awkward and arduous evolution from developing to developed — historical prejudice, class struggle, political corruption, environmental neglect, and an ever-widening gap between rich and poor. This website is dedicated to some of my work on the topic.

It is often said that to fully understand a culture, you have to understand its humor. I think the same holds true of a country's sports and its relationship to those sports. If you want to know more about China through sports, I recommend you read China Sports Review, China Sports Today, and Par for China .