Intellectual Property & Trade Secrets
Protect what your business shares, creates and owns. We advise on confidentiality, brand rights and IP contracts with Chinese suppliers, employees and business partners, and help assess your options when a dispute arises.
Protection before and during your China business
Set the terms before you disclose
Draft or review confidentiality and, where appropriate, non-use and non-circumvention provisions. Address the contracting entity, permitted purpose, authorised recipients, subcontractors and dispute arrangements for your transaction.
Connect agreements with daily controls
Identify the information to protect and review how it is shared, accessed and recorded. Align supplier and employee obligations with confidentiality measures, document retention and handover arrangements.
Plan how your brand is used in China
Review brand ownership, proposed use, licensing and distribution arrangements. Assess suspected unauthorised use and the available response. Registration and filing work requires a separately confirmed scope and agency arrangements.
Clarify ownership and permitted use
Draft or review manufacturing, development, technology and licensing agreements. Address existing IP, new work product, use rights, deliverables and post-termination obligations, including relevant copyright and software provisions.
Assess the rights, the evidence and the route forward.
If confidential information has been misused, a brand copied or an IP agreement breached, we review the parties, the rights asserted, the contracts and the available evidence. We explain the issues that support a claim and the gaps that need further work.
The agreed work may include advice on preserving evidence, demand letters, negotiations, or representation in litigation or arbitration. The appropriate forum and any request for interim relief depend on the facts, applicable rules and the engagement. See our Disputes & Recovery services.
Trade-secret protection involves more than signing a confidentiality agreement. The PRC Anti-Unfair Competition Law, Article 10 (2025 revision, official Chinese text) addresses secrecy, commercial value and confidentiality measures. We review these issues against the information and practices involved.
Start with a defined business question
Outline the matter
Tell us the parties, the information or rights involved, what has happened or is planned, and any deadline. A short summary is enough for the initial enquiry; please do not send source code, formulas or detailed know-how through the enquiry form.
Agree the work and fee
After initial conflict and availability checks, we confirm the scope in writing. Any filing agency or technical specialist, and their role and costs, must be identified as part of the arrangements.
Review, prepare and act
We arrange appropriate document sharing, review the legal position and prepare the agreed advice or documents. Negotiation or dispute representation proceeds within the engagement.
Work with a Beijing law firm in English and Chinese. Meet Aaron Lv, Partner, or verify the firm's professional credentials.
Common questions
Do we need an NDA or an NNN agreement?
An NDA usually addresses disclosure. An agreement described as NNN also addresses non-use and non-circumvention. The provisions should match your relationship and the information involved. The label alone does not establish enforceability or guarantee protection.
Can you review an agreement before we send samples or drawings?
Yes. Tell us who will receive them, the proposed use, whether anything has already been shared and your timetable. The review can address the agreement, the parties and the practical disclosure arrangements.
Does an IP engagement include trademark or patent filing?
Only if expressly included in the agreed scope, with the responsible provider and applicable qualifications confirmed. Patent drafting and specialist technical analysis require separate arrangements. We do not assume these services are included in a contract review or dispute engagement.
Can you help with an employee or supplier confidentiality dispute?
We can assess the relevant obligations, information, conduct and evidence, then agree the appropriate assistance. Employee matters may also involve our China employment services; supplier matters may involve our supplier dispute services.
Connect IP protection with your China operations
Sharing information or protecting your rights in China?
Tell us the parties, the issue and your deadline. We will discuss the appropriate scope of legal assistance.
