By Dan Harris in 'China Law Blog'

Stan Abrams over at China Hearsay is (or will be?) speaking on China intellectual property at an IP conference for SMEs in the Netherlands and he has mapped out on his blog what he is going to say. And here it is:

1. Register your IP as early as possible.
2. Don’t sacrifice IP protection for speed (i.e. don’t jump into the market before you take care of your IP).
3. Have a well-crafted, reasonable, and feasible China IP plan in place before anything goes wrong.
4. Do your homework (keep your eyes open for infringement and listen to your distributors and agents).
5. Check up frequently on licensees, distributors, agents, and manufacturers.
6. Avail yourself of all reasonable enforcement measures (after doing a cost benefit analysis of course), but understand the obstacles involved.

Couldn't have said it better myself.

Dan Harris is founder of the Harris & Moure law firm, a boutique international law firm focusing on small and medium sized businesses that operate internationally. China is the fastest growing area for the firm. Dan writes ChinaLawBlog.com as a source of China legal and business information.