Seattle Law Firm Opens China's Door for Small Companies

Filed in archive on April 18, 2006

With Chinese President Hu Jintao scheduled to be feted at the home of Microsoft founder, Bill Gates in Seattle, CVN spoke with local law firm, Harris & Moure, which specializes in assisting small and medium-sized U.S. companies tap into the China market. Senior law partners, Dan Harris and Steve Dickinson do not think that Mr. Hu's U.S. trade diffusing visit will have any direct impact on its clients.

However the two partners share Microsoft's concerns about the need for the protection of intellectual property-rights. "We are of the view
that nearly all companies doing business in China need to be concerned about protecting their IP there. American companies have to realize that in China, the first to register a trademark generally gets it."

Mr. Dickinson, the 51 year-old globalist, and Mandarin speaker, has an office in Shanghai and does much work assisting foreign companies in drafting secrecy agreements with their OEM manufacturers
and their own employees. Dickinson believes that "non-compete agreements are usually a good idea as well."

The specialized international law firm's view is that Chinese courts generally will enforce these agreements, but without them, the foreign company usually has no legal redress.

The partners recognize their niche in China is different from the large global legal firms. "We are not out there gunning for the multi-million dollar anti-dumping case, or the mega- transborder corporate merger; our niche is doing an OEM contract in English and in Chinese, registering a trademark, forming
a wholly owned foreign entity (WFOE), representative office, or joint venture."

The law firm's typical client is a manufacturing company(often times a high tech manufacturer) that has been doing business in or with China for a few years and has come to realize that China's recently changed corporate and IP laws, along with the recent upsurge in China's respect for the law in general, now make it necessary that they treat their Chinese legal matters with the same diligence that they use domestically.

Both Harris and Dickinson are "constantly evangelizing on the opportunities for service companies in China." More importantly, according to Harris & Moure, they are starting to hear from more U.S. companies interested in figuring out how to make money in financing in China. "We see this as a huge growth market in China," claims Dickinson returning to Shanghai in a few days.