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Supporting Daniel Albrecht for vice president EUCCC

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

Why Daniel?

All candidates up for election in the European Chamber of Commerce in China are capable and merit our vote. I am supporting Daniel Albrecht for vice president EUCCC simply because he stands up to do more for SMEs, an often neglected crowd in the Chamber and in top-level meetings. Mats Harborn is another strong candidate.
See here all candidates:
http://agm.europeanchamber.com.cn/beijing/#candidates

See his video:

Motivation Letter

See: MOTIVATION_LETTER_DANIEL_ALBRECHT

After being an active member in the EUCCC since 2014 I decided to run for the position of Vice President of the European Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC).
This is the first time I run for a position on the Board of the EUCCC. I see this as a chance to bring fresh ideas and new energy into the chamber as a board member.
Through my professional experience in Beijing I have become familiar with problems affecting European SMEs such as general legal issues as well as IPR matters. As a small company I have encountered also the difficulties of working in China, being very different from issues faced by multinationals. For SMEs it is more difficult to get support from officials or other institutions due to a lack of a proper lobbying. My clients have been based in several European countries so I am familiar with their different needs and requirements.
I have more than ten years of China experience. In the past I worked for different Chinese and foreign law firms. I have been a member of the EUCCC since 2014, being active in the SME, IPR and CSR Working Groups. Since 2016 I have been helping the China SME IPR Help Desk as an external expert.
In my work for the Chamber, I have devoted myself to write comments and articles for the position papers and other publications and to try to contribute substantial input to change national regulations.
As a Vice president and advocate of the European SMEs I will focus on:

  • Strengthen the voice of European SMEs in China
  • Implement a nationwide network to defend the interests of the SMEs
  • Contribute to the effectiveness of our Chamber
  • Promote a strong European identify of the Chamber
  • Involve more European members

Biography

Daniel Albrecht, German attorney at law, married with a Chinese wife and has a 14-year -old daughter. As an attorney for more than ten years, he is a trusted lawyer of several embassies. Daniel used to be the founder, as well as a lawyer of DA-Legal, after practicing law in Germany, Japan and China, now he is running his own company, Starke, in China since 2014. With more than ten years’ experience in law area, especially in Chinese Law, he also acts as the external expert of EU China IPR SME Help Desk since 2016.  Daniel has not only lots of work experience but also a number of academic experience in Law Field. Having experience as an invited lecturer in universities in Germany, he is now a guest professor of Civil Law of China University of Political Science and Law (CUPL) since 2016. During his career in law, he has published several articles aiming e-commerce, IPR and other law issues in Chinese, Japanese and German magazines.
Daniel also devotes himself to voluntary works. He had been the president of the China-German-Business-Network since 2009 to 2016. From 2015 to 2016, he was the president of the Rotary Club of Beijing. Daniel is also active in different chambers of commerce in China, of which related mostly to SME topics and activities. He always has enthusiasm for organization works and willing to exert efforts.

In China anything can be copied

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

IPR anybody?

As reported earlier, IPR is a major problem as In China anything can be copied.
Some copies can be hilarious but some other copies are rather bad for your health.

Some examples

Fake rice, yes that exists as well as fake eggs. There was a hoopla in Nigeria about imports (from China, what else?) said to be fake rice. Then the authorities got fuzzy and confused about it. Maybe they ate the rice?
Geely tried to copy Rolls Royce. Nice try.
Pollution masks had a really familiar logo. Maybe with a smell of beer? Healthy Heineken!
Cosmetics can be pretty tricky, there are so many fakes on the market. Mostly they show their true face by the spelling mistakes. Lancôme suddenly becomes Lancômes. Problem is, 99% of the Chinese hardly can read any English and are easily fooled. Pretty dangerous to use those products as one has no idea what’s inside.

Death By China: really?

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

The new Trump team

“Death By China” is again in the news. Sino-US trade frictions loom with Trump’s new pick for policy adviser, as explained in the SCMP:
Appointment of China critic Peter Navarro points to more bilateral tensions ahead, analyst says.
22 December 2016,
http://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy-defence/article/2056678/sino-us-trade-frictions-loom-trumps-new-pick-policy

Peter Navarro

The professor is the author of “Death By China: How America Lost Its Manufacturing Base” (2011)
See the Official Version  of the documentary (in China you need VPN):

I did watch the entire documentary and can only say it is pretty harsh on China and at least a part of his statements are simply dead wrong, e.g. his take on Apple and Foxconn.
However he could find some supporters in the foreign business community for some of his criticism. Anyway Chinese officials better not simply dismiss the whole thing but instead have a close look.

More from Navarro

Peter Navarro is a professor at the Merage School of Business at the University of California-Irvine. With a Masters of Public Administration from the Kennedy School of Government and a Ph.D. in economics from Harvard, this distinguished macroeconomist has written extensively on Asia as well as lived and worked there.

crouchingtiger

His other book: “Crouching Tiger: What China’s Militarism Means for the World” (2015)
See: http://crouchingtiger.net/

It says there:
Will there be war with China? The Crouching Tiger book provides the most complete and accurate assessment of the probability of conflict between the United States and the rising Asian superpower. Equally important, it lays out an in-depth analysis of the possible pathways to peace. Written like a geopolitical detective story, the narrative encourages reader interaction by starting each chapter with an intriguing question that often challenge conventional wisdom. Based on interviews with more than thirty top experts, the author highlights a number of disturbing facts about China’s recent military buildup and the shifting balance of power in Asia: the Chinese are deploying game-changing “carrier killer” ballistic missiles; some of America’s supposed allies in Europe and Asia are selling highly lethal weapons systems to China in a perverse twist on globalization; and, on the U.S. side, debilitating cutbacks in the military budget send a message to the world that America is not serious about its “pivot to Asia.”

And so on.
Oh well, not planning to buy his book(s). Let’s see what he will really do. And good luck to him. He will need it.

Donald Trump battles China IPR

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

The IPR area in China is a minefield

(second part on this issue)
If Donald Trump battles China IPR, he is not alone.

As quoted from NYT:
Mr. Trump has fought at least once to get his name back. In 2015, he lost a legal battle against a businessman in the northern province of Liaoning, Dong Wei, to prevent him from using the Trump name for a construction company, according to a website run by China’s Supreme Court. Then the decision was reversed. A notice issued on China’s trademark office website on Sunday said that Mr. Trump’s trademark had been granted preliminary approval for use in construction services. The Wall Street Journal reported the decision on Monday.
The situation highlights the difficulties that big brands and celebrities face as they navigate the country’s relatively new trademark laws.
In China, trademarks are generally awarded to those who are first to file with the government. That has given rise to a crush of people registering the names of well-known brands, in a practice known as “trademark squatting.”
Many Western companies like Apple and Starbucks have been caught up in long legal battles to win the right to use their names in China.
In May, a Chinese company won the right to sell its leather goods under the iPhone trademark after years of legal wrangling with Apple. Michael Jordan lost the rights to the name he is known by in China. New Balance paid $16 million in damages for what a court said was the illegal use of the Chinese name for the company, which a person had trademarked.

Donald Trump lost

Earlier, the South China Morning Post and CNBC commented on Trump’s fight to protect his Trademark, see:
“The day Donald Trump took on the Chinese government — and lost” – 14 Nov 2016
http://www.cnbc.com/2016/11/14/the-day-donald-trump-took-on-the-chinese-government–and-lost.html

No matter what course U.S. president-elect Donald Trump takes with China, he starts out with at least one loss in his tangles with Beijing authorities.
Despite waging a long court battle, Trump failed to trademark his own name in the construction industry on the mainland.
Yet it seems Trump’s surprise election win has begun to make a difference with the country’s trademark officials.
His application for a similar trademark in the same categories as before — with the only difference being the capitalized name, “TRUMP,” was filed on March 20, 2014, and provisionally approved on Sunday, four days after his win, according to the government-run trademark search system.

China’s IPR a real “Far West” (in the East)

Many foreign companies have seen their trademark stolen by trademark squatters. The Chinese government mostly let them do, blaming the foreign companies by not filing on time.
There are so many cases of this type and some foreign companies had to spit up millions of USD to … buy back their own trademark.
As I said before, some clever foreign lawyers should do the same in EU and USA and squatter on Chinese brand names before the Chinese have the idea to act. It already happened, but not enough. Then of course China was “angry”. Duh.

A typical case: Calissons d’Aix

See: French confectioners battle Chinese firm over Calissons d’Aix
16 November 2016
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-38005875

calissonsdaixbbc

Excerpts
Angry French confectioners are preparing for battle over a sweet from Provence, after a Chinese company trademarked its name.
Calissons d’Aix are eye-shaped marzipan treats flavored with melon, and firmly associated with France.
But Shanghai-based firm Ye Chunlin snapped up the rights under the noses of the Gallic manufacturers.
Now the French Union des Fabricants des Calissons (Union of Calisson makers) in Aix is fighting to block the decision.
Calissons have had protected status in France since 1991, so any brand making them there has to follow set methods.

Chinese copying Chinese

Chinese copy anything, also Chinese famous brands
Just a week ago a Dutch friend saw these bicycles. Their logo reads JIANT. Oops. Doesn’t that sound like GIANT, one of the most famous bike brands here?

China still needs to act to clean up this IPR mess. Donald Trump had also a taste of it but might be lucky as – President.
Others are not so lucky.

Discover MaAnShan City in Anhui Province

Posted on by Gilbert Van Kerckhove

A fast trip

Remark: I normally use “MaAnShan” instead of “Maanshan” as it is more clear for the pronunciation
It was my second chance to discover MaAnShan City in Anhui Province.
On 10 November after lunch we went by High-Speed Train from Beijing to Nanjing South Railway Station, some 4 hours for some 1000 Km. We were picked up by car and we arrived in our hotel in MaAnShan after 45 minutes. It is the fastest way. The trains are very comfortable, especially in business class. With a cruising speed of 303 Km/h they are very quiet and extra stable. We came back on 11 November in the afternoon and were home around 9 pm. The Beijing South Station is gigantic and modern, looks like an airport. Taxi service to leave there is a disaster so we took the subway instead. The Nanjing South Station is also modern, see the pics.
Shows how efficient it can be to travel in China.
The hotel was also impressive, the suite just a bit oversized, see the pics of the Wanda Realm.

Discover MaAnShan City in Anhui

See the website of the People’s Government of MaAnShan (English):
http://www.mas.gov.cn/english/

Main Listed Companies
Maanshan Iron & Steel Co., Ltd, Anhui Xingma Automobile Co., Ltd, Anhui Shanying Paper Industry Co., Ltd, Sino Anhui Tianyuan Technology Co., Ltd, Maanshan Fangyuan Slewing Ring Co., Ltd, Anhui Taier Heavy Industry Co., Ltd and Maanshan Dingtai Rare Earth & New Material Co., Ltd

Main Outside Enterprises with Investment in Maanshan:
French Saint Gobain, Carrefour, Auchan, Wal-Mart, British BOC, Japanese Marubeni, Taiwan-based China Rubber and Hong Kong-based China Gas, Tsingtao Brewery, Anhui BBCA Bio-chemical, Zhuhai Gree Electric Appliances, Mengniu Diary, Yurun Group, Liby Group, Dali Group and Keda Industrial.

The city has a population of 2.3 million and covers an area of over 4,000 sq. Km. It is built along the Yangtze River, lakes and mountains.
MaAnShan is the most developed city in Anhui Province and it is ranked third in Anhui for economic strength.
It is famous for the Caishi Scenic Area, where great poet Li Bai died.
It is 40 Km from Nanjing downtown area, 300 Km from Shanghai and 270 Km from Hangzhou.
It takes about 40 minutes to drive to Nanjing Lukou International Airport.
MaAnShan Harbor, one of the ten major harbors on the Yangtze River, is the State first-class harbor opening to foreign ships.

Modern Industrial Park of Zhengpu Port New District

We first had a dinner with the Secretary of MaAnShan Municipal Committee of the CPC. The next day we visited the MaAnShan Urban Planning Exhibition Hall. Then we toured the Modern Industrial Park of Zhengpu Port New District, with its new harbor and several industrial zones and facilities. The whole region is newly built, four years ago it was just farmland, hard to realize as so much has been developed. We also visited the industrial zone and the company “MaAnShan Air Handling Green Building Environmental Science and Technology”. It installs large air conditioning units, a cooperation with Israel.

Website of the new zone (Chinese only):
http://www.maszpgxq.gov.cn/index.html

We are currently under discussion to cooperate to promote the new zone and the city.