St. Louis CLE will explore intellectual property enforcement in China

Globally, counterfeit products cost corporations more than $600 billion each year. The majority of those counterfeit goods originate in China, where sophisticated counterfeit operations manufacture everything from knockoff handbags to brake pads and aircraft components.

An upcoming CLE session at Washington University School of Law will dive into some of the core legal issues involved in the manufacture and sale of counterfeit goods in China. The session, “Chinese IP Enforcement,” will be held Thursday, Feb. 13, at 3:30 p.m. in the school’s Bryan Cave Courtroom. It’s sponsored by BAMSL's Patent, Trademark and Copyright Section.

Panelists will discuss the two most common fact patterns that have cropped up regarding Chinese IP enforcement. In the first, a Chinese manufacturer for a U.S. company takes the company’s designs and sells counterfeit versions on its own. In the second scenario, a Chinese company buys a U.S. product and manufactures knockoffs back in China.

The session will explore the basics of avoiding such situations, the policies and issues involved in both, and how a company can navigate its response to overseas counterfeit operations.

Panelists:
Matt Braunel, a partner in Thompson Coburn's Intellectual Property practice who focuses on IP litigation with a special focus on “brand integrity,” a rapidly expanding area of law that responds to the myriad counterfeit products flooding U.S. markets.

Jia "Holly” You, a partner in Armstrong Teasdale’s International practice group who works with domestic and international enterprises engaged in foreign investment enterprises in China, Hong Kong, Macau and Singapore.

Moderator:
Charles R. McManis, professor, Washington University in St. Louis School of Law