![](media/image1.png){width="0.8708333333333333in"
height="1.1340277777777779in"}

-2-

importers, SEMA has consistently counseled its members on a variety of
best practices ranging from reminders that they are manufacturers to
tips on how to secure the supply chain.

SEMA published a two-part series in the December 2007 and February 2008
editions of the "SEMA News" magazine on the best practices topic. The
article is entitled "Sourcing Your Products from China without Losing
Your Shirt, Your Intellectual Property, or Your Customers" by Merritt R.
Blakeslee of deKieffer & Horgan. While most of the suggestions have been
incorporated into NHTSA's guidance document, SEMA is attaching the
article (below) in case some advice may prove useful when preparing the
final document and to demonstrate the benefit which occurs when
government and the private sector send a consistent message to the
regulated community.

Thank you for your consideration of our views. Should you require
additional information, please feel free to contact me.

> Sincerely,

![](media/image2.png){width="2.359722222222222in"
height="0.6958333333333333in"}

> Ste
>
> Stephen B. McDonald
>
> Vice President, Government Affairs
>
> Specialty Equipment Market Association
>
> 1317 F Street, NW, Suite 500
>
> Washington, DC 20004
>
> 202/783-6007, ext. 31
>
> 202/783-6024 -- fax
>
> <stevem@sema.org>

<http://sema.org/main/semaorghome.aspx?id=58637>

**\
SEMA News: December 2007**

### Sourcing Your Products From China...

**...Without Losing Your Shirt, Your Intellectual Property or Your
Customers---Part I**\
\
*By Merritt R. Blakeslee*

There is a saying about sourcing from China: Anything is possible, but
everything is difficult. This article, the first in a two-part series,
discusses some of the difficulties of sourcing from China and offers a
set of strategies for dealing with them.

This series will consider problems confronted by a U.S.-based company
supplying the automotive aftermarket in the United States that wishes to
source products from China on an ongoing basis, including how to find a
suitable Chinese supplier; how to build a productive and durable
relationship; how to prevent problems in your relationship with your
supplier; and how to protect your intellectual property rights and your
customers. (As you will see, the issues raised are applicable to many
other countries beyond China.)

**What Can Go Wrong: Nightmare Scenarios**

Before talking about how to get it right, let's first discuss what can
go wrong. Here are three nightmare scenarios that you should keep in
mind if you intend to begin sourcing your products from China.

**Nightmare 1:** Company A carefully selects a Chinese manufacturer to
produce its\
product, which contains proprietary software or other proprietary
technology. Without Company A's authorization, the Chinese manufacturer
copies the technology and uses it to manufacture products that compete
with those of Company A. As a result, Company A loses its competitive
edge and substantial market share to low-priced counterfeits produced
using the misappropriated technology.

**Nightmare 2:** Company B sells high-performance aftermarket wheels,
which it sources from a supplier in China. As with most products sold in
our industry, these wheels are safety critical. A wheel bearing Company
B's name breaks, causing a fatal accident in the United States, and B is
sued for product liability. Company B inspects the defective wheel and
suspects that it was not an authorized product but cannot be sure since
it does not mark its products in a way that would permit it to identify
counterfeits. Ultimately, Company B must defend a product liability suit
and do an expensive product recall. It believes, but can never prove,
that its supplier was doing "midnight runs"---making unauthorized
production runs of its product with relaxed quality controls---and
selling the unauthorized products into the United States market. The
fatal accident, the lawsuit and the product recall were the result.

**Nightmare 3:** Company C sources fully finished and packaged products
from China. It has its supplier drop-ship these products directly to C's
customers in the United States. After a few months, C finds its orders
declining. Upon investigation, it discovers that one of its largest
customers is buying directly from the Chinese supplier, which is
supplying Company C's products under a different brand name.

**What Are the Risks of Sourcing Your Products From China?**

A useful way to approach this issue is to categorize the risks of
sourcing from China that differ from the risks of doing business with a
U.S. supplier. Let's divide these into background and specific risk
factors.

Background risk factors include:

-   Information deficit

-   Language

-   Distance and logistical risks associated with transnational
    transactions

-   Time and calendar differences

-   An absence of U.S. and U.S.-type legal remedies

-   Currency exchange risks

-   Geopolitical risk

The four specific types of risks that come with sourcing from abroad
are:

-   Risks associated with your relationship with your Chinese supplier
    (quality, delivery, payment, etc.)

-   The risk that the integrity of the supply chain for your products
    will be compromised

-   The risk that your company's intellectual property will be
    misappropriated

-   The risk that your customers will be stolen

**Managing Risks in the Relationship With Your Chinese Supplier**

You already have a relationship with a supplier or suppliers in the
United States, whether you manufacture in-house or purchase your
products fully or partly finished. In large measure, the
issues---quality, delivery and payment---you will face with a Chinese
supplier are the same as with a U.S. supplier and the solutions are the
same. This article discusses techniques for minimizing and managing the
risks specific to doing business with a Chinese supplier.

**Finding a Reliable Supplier**

The first and most fundamental risk of sourcing from China flows from
your lack of information about the Chinese industry where you wish to
place your manufacturing. While you should be able to identify reliable
suppliers of quality products in the United States, it is unlikely that
you will have the same level of expertise concerning your Chinese
suppliers. Thus, the first challenge is to find a reliable supplier.

It is recommended that you get professional help with your search to
overcome the information deficit. There are many search
services---called match-making agencies---that work in China to assist
foreign purchasers in locating a suitable manufacturer. However, many of
these agencies work for the suppliers, much in the same way that a real
estate agent in the United States works for the home seller, not for the
buyer.

The challenge is to find an agency that is rigorously independent.
Organizations, such as the U.S.-China Business Council, the American
Chambers of Commerce in China and the Department of Commerce's Foreign
Commercial Service, assist U.S. companies doing business in China, and
they are a good starting point for locating a reliable search agency.
Once you have selected a prospective supplier or suppliers, you should
go through the normal qualification process that you would use with a
U.S. supplier.

In addition to the considerations that would govern the selection of a
supplier in the United States---capacity, capability, core competence,
size, design capability (do they have the ability to adapt your designs
to their manufacturing processes) and quality certifications---here are
two more considerations that should factor into your selection of a
Chinese supplier.

Look for a supplier that has prior experience with
exporting---particularly experience with exporting to the West. By
selecting such a supplier, you have some assurance that the company
understands the supply-chain and logistics issues associated with
supplying a foreign purchaser and, more important, that it has some
experience in meeting the demands of a Western customer.

Language is also a background risk factor. It is not true in China, as
it is in some other parts of the world, that "there is nothing to worry
about because everybody speaks English." Some Chinese manufacturers hire
young English-speakers fresh out of university to interact with their
U.S. customers. These young people effectively become the project
managers in charge of your relationship with the supplier. Frequently,
however, they lack technical knowledge and experience; their sole
expertise lies in speaking English.

This is a recipe for trouble. You should consider carefully whether you
want to begin a relationship with a company where you cannot communicate
directly in English (a) with the managers, with whom you will have to
work to solve delivery and relationship problems, and (b) with the
engineering department, with whom you will have to work to solve
technical and quality-related issues. Most people will tell you that it
is impractical to try to work through an interpreter. Thus, you may want
to make English-language competence on the part of key personnel a
requirement in selecting a supplier.

**General Techniques for Managing Risk**

Most risks in your relationship with your supplier can be minimized by
reliance on a combination of the following:

-   A well-drawn contract

-   Ongoing onsite inspections

-   Payment terms that shift the risk of non-performance to the supplier

-   Use of multiple suppliers

A significant background risk factor of sourcing from China is the
absence of reliable legal remedies if things go badly. If your supplier
lets you down in the United States, your ultimate remedy is the U.S.
court system. But with a Chinese supplier, several things are different.
Unless the Chinese supplier has a presence in the United States, even if
you sue and win in a U.S. court of law, it is probable that you will be
unable to collect a judgment---either in the United States, where the
defendant has no assets, or in China, where the courts and the
authorities will not assist you in enforcing a monetary judgment
obtained in the United States.

It is, of course, possible to sue in a Chinese court, but this carries
with it a different set of difficulties. You will need reliable Chinese
counsel, and the uncertainty as to the outcome that is always a fact in
U.S. litigation is even greater in China where the legal system is still
developing. Moreover, even if you win, the enforcement mechanisms in
China are weak. In short, obtaining a satisfactory litigated solution to
problems with your supplier is even more uncertain in China than in the
United States, and an important goal of the four techniques mentioned
above is avoiding the need to resort to litigation against your
supplier.

**A Well-Drawn Contract**

A carefully thought-out and drafted contract can provide the basis for a
long, productive relationship with your supplier. Think through the
problems that could arise---including those discussed in this
article---and provide solutions to those potential problems in the
contract. Think of the contract first and foremost as a blueprint for a
harmonious relationship with your supplier. In addition, however, your
contract should be an air-tight legal document that can be enforced in a
Chinese (or U.S.) court if you have no other alternative but to sue your
supplier.

**Inspection Service**

There are many independent, reliable companies in China that will
inspect the goods you are purchasing during the manufacturing process
and/or prior to shipment, and it is recommended that you use one.
Ideally, the inspection should be done in the factory, and your contract
should give your inspector unfettered, around-the-clock access to your
supplier's facility. Not only will a competent inspection service
identify quality problems before the goods are shipped, but it can also
alert you to upcoming delivery problems and possibly detect diversion of
your product or misappropriation of your intellectual property.

**Payment Mechanisms**

Chinese companies often do business on the basis of letters of credit.
However, where you pay for your merchandise with a letter of credit at
the time you take delivery in China is where you bear the risk of
receiving non-compliant goods unless the letter of credit contains an
inspection provision. Moreover, letters of credit are expensive. Trouble
with quality and other problems that can arise in the relationship with
your supplier are managed more effectively if you negotiate payment
terms that protect you against quality and delivery problems. Such
payment terms can include: (a) a delayed payment term, where you are not
required to make payment until 30 or 60 days after delivery, allowing
you time to identify quality problems; (b) a non-payment term, in the
event of severe problems with the merchandise; and (c) a reserve in the
initial payment specifically to cover potential warranty problems that
do not appear within the payment period. Moreover, your supplier has an
incentive to agree to such terms in order to build a durable, productive
relationship with you.

**Use of Multiple Suppliers**

Using more than one supplier carries obvious problems: Do you have
enough demand? Are you sacrificing buying power by splitting your order?
Are you unnecessarily complicating your operations?

On the other hand, supplier redundancy can confer important benefits: It
can protect you against quality, delivery and capacity problems. It
ensures that you are not hostage to a single supplier. It may actually
help you in negotiating price.

**Managing the Risk of Receiving Non-Conforming Goods**

Quality is the single most important issue in the supplier relationship.
We have already discussed using a match-making service to locate a
reliable supplier, using an inspection service to catch quality problems
at the production stage and using payment terms that give you the
recourse of withholding payment where quality problems arise. Another
vital element in ensuring quality is the use of production-process
documentation that spells out for you and your supplier, at the
beginning of the relationship, all the steps that he or she will follow
in manufacturing your products. This may be the single most important
technique for creating successful production runs.

Finally, your contract should spell out warranty terms and provide a
detailed understanding of how quality defects will be handled by your
supplier.

**Managing the Risk of Delivery and Customs Problems**

Delivery problems can be divided into two types: those that are the
fault of the supplier and those that are not.

Contract provisions specifying a penalty for late delivery and requiring
rush delivery by air at the supplier's expense when the goods would
otherwise be late if delivered by ocean freight, place the risk of late
delivery on the supplier; it is wise to include such provisions in your
contract with your supplier.

But what about those background risk factors that are outside the
control of the supplier? Most goods from China are shipped to the United
States by ocean freight. Transportation by ship from China to the United
States adds about five weeks on top of the normal manufacturing lead
time.

In addition to sheer distance, there are the twin risks of
weather-related delays and of bottlenecks at the ports of lading and
unlading.

To guard against these hazards, you should consider maintaining safety
inventories in the United States, with the additional cost that it
entails. You should also be prepared to make emergency shipments by air
at your own expense when your goods are delayed in transit for reasons
that are not the fault of your supplier.

A related but different risk of delay arises from the fact that your
Chinese-origin goods are subject to the U.S. Customs laws when they
enter the United States. You should hire a competent Customs broker and,
when necessary, a good Customs attorney to ensure that your products are
not delayed in Customs and to take quick, competent action if they are.

Avoid the temptation to use a Chinese freight forwarder as your U.S.
Customs broker, even though that may be less expensive in the short
term. This is an invitation to problems with Customs. If possible, use
one---and only one---U.S.-based Customs broker and work closely with him
or her to ensure that your goods are correctly classified and documented
to avoid Customs problems. This will help you to avoid overpaying
Customs duties and thereby losing money or underpaying Customs duties,
thereby placing yourself at risk that you will be on the receiving end
of a Customs enforcement action.

**Managing the Problems Associated With Time and Calendar Differences**

One very practical problem that you must solve is coordinating a work
schedule with your supplier in the face of time differences and very
different national holidays. Unlike many western factories, where the
holiday schedules are staggered to maintain operations, factories in
China often close completely during holidays to allow workers to be at
home with their families. Moreover, most American holidays do not
overlap with Chinese holidays.

Time differences add to the difficulty of communicating and coordinating
with your supplier. Where there is a 12-hour time difference between you
and your supplier (the difference, for example, between Detroit and
Shanghai), there is never a time when the business hours of your company
and your supplier's overlap. Moreover, leaving aside the time
difference, there is only a three-day overlap in the five-day business
week. When it is 7:00 a.m. on Friday morning in the United States, it is
7:00 p.m. in Shanghai and the business week (if it ends on Friday) is
already over. By the time the U.S. company opens for business on Monday
morning, it is already Monday evening in Shanghai. Thus, you will have
to find practical means of maintaining good communications with your
supplier and of ensuring that your delivery schedule is not disrupted by
Chinese holidays. Your contract with your supplier should lay out how
these problems will be addressed.

**Managing the Risk of Currency Fluctuation**

Whenever a U.S. company purchases abroad, currency risk is an issue. In
the short term, the risk of currency fluctuation can be shifted to your
supplier by doing business in dollars. This means that it is your
supplier that will have to absorb these fluctuations if the exchange
rate between the dollar and the yuan fluctuates. But this arrangement
protects you only as long as the effect of the fluctuations does not
become intolerable for your supplier. If it does, your supplier will
insist on renegotiating prices.

A contract provision could provide that the price will not change if the
input cost rises or falls by a certain percentage. If the cost goes
outside the agreed-upon band, then the price will be raised or lowered
by an agreed-up percentage. (You can use the same technique to provide
for spikes in the cost of inputs not related to currency
fluctuation---for example, changes in the price of copper or steel.)

The currency risk in China is magnified by geopolitical risk. As you
know, China is under intense pressure from the international community
to revalue its currency upward. From your point of view, this means that
there is a risk that the yuan will be revalued upward at some time in
the future and the products that you have been purchasing at an
attractive price will suddenly cost more in dollars, even though the
price in yuan remains unchanged. By using more than one supplier, and by
ensuring that at least one of your suppliers is not located in China,
you minimize the geopolitical risks specific to sourcing from China.

**Use of a Non-Compete Provision**

Finally, you may also want to obtain assurances that your supplier is
not selling to your competitors and to include a provision in your
contract that it will not do so in the future.

**\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_**

[*http://sema.org/main/semaorghome.aspx?id=58888*](http://sema.org/main/semaorghome.aspx?id=58888)

**\
SEMA News: February 2008**

### Sourcing Your Products From China...

**...Without Losing Your Shirt, Your Intellectual Property or Your
Customers---Part II\
\
***By Merritt R. Blakeslee*

*This is the second in a two-part series on issues to consider when
sourcing products from China (and other countries). See Part I in the
[SEMA News December
2007](http://www.sema.org/main/semaorghome.aspx?id=58637) issue, which
outlined the risks specific to sourcing from a Chinese supplier and
offered techniques for minimizing and managing them.*

**Safeguarding Your Intellectual Property Against Misappropriation by
Your Supplier or Others**

**A. Preventing the Theft of Your Intellectual Property**

When sourcing from a Chinese supplier, you must take steps to protect
your intellectual property: the trademarks with which your products are
branded; the copyrighted materials in your product instructions,
marketing materials and software; the patents on the technology
incorporated into or used to manufacture your products; and any trade
secrets covering your manufacturing processes. Here, the best offense is
a good defense.

It is important to understand that your intellectual property is at risk
whether or not you turn it over to your Chinese supplier. Chinese
manufacturers routinely reverse-engineer and copy products that they
obtain on the open market. Here are some tips on how to manage the
heightened risks to your intellectual property that go with sourcing
from a Chinese supplier.

**1. Use due diligence in selecting your supplier.**

Your search for a reliable supplier (as discussed in Part I) should
include an intellectual property audit of any prospective supplier to
determine what else it is manufacturing, for whom and whether there have
been any complaints related to intellectual property and any evidence of
unauthorized products being sold in China or the United States. You may
wish to run a background check on key personnel.

**2. Protect your intellectual property through contractual
provisions.**

In protecting your intellectual property, prevention is better than
enforcement---and prevention begins with well-drawn contractual
documents. Your contract should include a non-disclosure section in
which your supplier agrees not to disclose either (a) your company's
confidential business information or (b) confidential intellectual
property (for example, a trade secret). It should also include language
specifying that your supplier does not have a license to use your
intellectual property except in connection with products manufactured
for and delivered directly to you. In addition, you should work with
your supplier to raise his intellectual property awareness. Finally, the
use of an inspection agency to monitor the activities of your supplier
(as discussed in Part I) is also a safeguard against the theft of your
intellectual property. These are prophylactic methods and, like washing
your hands to prevent catching a cold, they are necessary but not
fool-proof.

**3. Hold on to your intellectual property and trade secrets.**

If you do not turn your intellectual property over to your Chinese
supplier, it makes it more difficult---although not impossible---for
your intellectual property to be misappropriated. Some companies source
only semi-finished goods from China and add the items critical to
intellectual property during final manufacturing in the United States.
To protect your patents, you can add the patented component---or perform
the patented process---once the product reaches the United States. You
can do the same with trade secrets---by using them only in the United
States. You can ensure that your trademarks are affixed only in the
United States. This may mean that you provide display packaging only in
the United States. Final steps to prepare your products for sale---e.g.,
any proprietary software programming---should be performed in the United
States, if possible.

Obviously, this involves significant trade-offs. It may be advantageous
or even essential for you to be able to source fully finished and
packaged products from the Chinese; that is, after all, why you went to
China in the first place. On the other hand, to obtain the greatest
possible protection for your intellectual property, you would stay away
from China entirely, although, as mentioned, even that does not
guarantee that your intellectual property will not be misappropriated. A
workable solution lies somewhere between these extremes, and you must
decide where to draw that line.

**4. Monitor the market.**

It goes without saying that you should continually monitor the market
for products that violate your intellectual property rights, and that is
true whether or not you source in China. To monitor for intellectual
property problems related to your production in China, you should
monitor Asian and European trade shows, as well as trade shows in the
United States; websites; B2B bulletin boards, such as Alibaba.com; and
publications, such as the China Transportation Equipment Guide, which is
distributed at the SEMA Show and to which you can subscribe.

**B. What to do if your intellectual property is stolen.**

If your intellectual property is stolen, you have two main choices, and
they are not mutually exclusive. One is to take action to bar the
importation of infringing merchandise into the United States. The other
is to take legal action in China.

Your options for taking action in the United States are: working with
the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection and the Bureau of
Immigration and Customs Enforcement to prevent importation; filing suit
at the International Trade Commission to bar importation; or seeking an
injunction against importation in federal district court. All of these
remedies are imperfect because the protection you obtain extends only to
the U.S. market. Separate enforcement action is required in other
countries where you sell your products.

There are at least three different types of legal action that you can
take in China to combat the misappropriation of your intellectual
property: requesting enforcement by the local administrative
authorities; requesting the Chinese Customs Service to bar the export of
the products that infringe your intellectual property; and bringing a
civil suit in a Chinese court. It is essential to realize that before
you can take any of these three types of action to enforce your
intellectual property rights, you must register your intellectual
property in China. The Department of Commerce has posted on its website
an "IPR Toolkit---Intellectual Property Rights in China"
([www.stopfakes.gov](http://www.stopfakes.gov/)) that explains what is
involved in registering your intellectual property in China. With
respect to trademarks, you should know that China has a "first-to-file"
system that requires no evidence of prior use or ownership, making it
legal for an unrelated party to register your trademarks in China.

U.S. companies have experienced mixed and often disappointing results in
attempting to enforce violations of their intellectual property through
the administrative agencies that enforce intellectual property rights in
China. On the other hand, Chinese Customs has been effective in
preventing the exportation of infringing merchandise, but its
effectiveness depends on receiving accurate, timely information from you
about the movement of infringing goods---and this is information that
you may not possess.

Therefore, most U.S. companies that seek enforcement of their
intellectual property rights in China file suit in a civil court. China
has established specialized intellectual property panels in its civil
court system throughout the country. You could bring a suit for
intellectual property infringement---or possibly for breach of
contract---and this is the most effective means of resolving problems
but, as noted, it is far from perfect.

**Protecting the Integrity of Your Supply Chain---Midnight Runs and How
to Avoid Them**

A so-called "midnight run" is the unauthorized manufacture of your
product by your supplier. The name supposes that the supplier produces
your product for you during normal business hours and runs an extra
night-time shift to manufacture additional units, which the supplier
then sells into the gray market.

This type of unauthorized manufacturing of your product does not
necessarily involve a violation of your intellectual property rights,
although if the manufacturer reproduces your trademarks, copyrighted
instructions, software or patented technology, then, in addition to
violating your trust---and its contract---the supplier has
misappropriated your intellectual property.

Here again, well-drawn contract language and good onsite inspection are
the first lines of defense. In addition, two techniques will give you
further protection against diversion by your Chinese supplier:
withholding or rationing key components that make the product
marketable, and ensuring that your products are marked in a way that
will permit immediate determination in the field whether a product with
your company's name on it is authorized or not.

It is a matter of common sense that if you do not entrust your supplier
with the responsibility for manufacturing components or products that
are salable as is (i.e., without the necessity of further
manufacturing), then it is harder for a supplier to sell any
unauthorized units of your product that it manufactures without your
knowledge. In other words, midnight runs are less of a problem with
semi-finished products than with components or fully finished goods.
Thus, one defense against midnight runs is to complete the manufacturing
process in the United States. This is particularly effective if you
withhold a component that is difficult to copy or reproduce.

If your business plan requires full assembly by the supplier, you can
still protect yourself by shipping a key component from the United
States in carefully regulated quantities. For example, Levi Strauss has
the tags for its "401" blue jeans produced in the United States with
sophisticated anti-counterfeiting technology, and it carefully ensures
that for every tag that it sends to its supplier, it receives a pair of
jeans in return. A number of companies in the United States will provide
this type of security relatively cheaply.

In addition, it is essential that you ensure that your products are
carefully marked---by individual serial number or at least by lot
number---so that when you find suspect products in the marketplace, you
can immediately determine whether they are products whose manufacture
you authorized. The marking should give information on date of
production, location of production facility, lot number, etc. Ideally,
each unit should bear an individualized mark, and this mark should be
readable in the field, i.e., with a handheld scanner. If the wheel
manufacturer with the broken wheel and the product liability suit
mentioned in Part I had employed this type of marking, he would have
been able to show that the broken wheel had been manufactured without
his authorization. 

### Intellectual Property Webinar Available

A discussion of the means of preventing the importation of your
misappropriated intellectual property is outside the scope of this
article. However, in September 2005, this article's author gave a SEMA
webinar entitled, "Why Your Company's Intellectual Property Is a
Valuable Asset and What to Do to Protect It From Infringement,"
discussing precisely this topic. That webinar can be accessed on the
SEMA website at Programs and Services/Education/Webinars:
[www.sema.org/main/semaorghome.aspx?id=51488](http://www.sema.org/main/semaorghome.aspx?id=51488). 

### Protecting Against the Theft of Your Customers

When your supplier sells your product---or an equivalent product---to
entities who have been buying directly from you, the supplier has stolen
your customers. Because SEMA members generally supply the automotive
aftermarket rather than the OEM market, theft of customers can be
slightly less of a problem because many high-performance aftermarket
products are sold on the basis of their brand name and trademarks.
Nevertheless, there is a danger of customer theft, particularly where
your supplier offers your product with different markings. The rules for
protecting against the theft of your customers by your Chinese supplier
are common-sense ones:

-   Include contract language that prohibits your supplier from selling
    your product---with or without your markings---to anyone except you.

-   Don't have your supplier drop-ship your goods to your customers.

-   Don't disclose your customer lists to your supplier.

-   Watch for a drop-off in orders from your customers.

**RESOURCES**

-   The U.S.-China Business Council:
    [www.uschina.org](http://www.uschina.org/)

-   Embassy of the United States Beijing/China IPR
    Toolkit---Intellectual Property Rights in China:
    <http://beijing.usembassy-china.org.cn/ipr.html>

-   U.S. Department of Commerce Office of China Economic Area
    Intellectual Property Rights In China Webinar Series:
    <http://www.stopfakes.gov/events/china_webinar_series.asp>

-   The American Chambers of Commerce, People's Republic of China:\
    [www.amcham-china.org.cn](http://www.amcham-china.org.cn/)

*Merritt R. Blakeslee, a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of
deKieffer & Horgan
([[www.dhlaw.com]{.underline}](http://www.dhlaw.com/)), has practiced in
the field of international law and trade law regulation since 1991. He
advises clients on compliance with U.S. and international trade
regulations and represents clients before federal agencies and U.S.
courts on a wide variety of issues, including the enforcement of U.S.
intellectual property rights against imported merchandise, antidumping
and countervailing duty proceedings, Customs issues (including proper
classification and valuation of imported merchandise) and general
commercial transactions. He may be reached at
[[mblakeslee@dhlaw.com]{.underline}](mailto:mblakeslee@dhlaw.com).*