After years of sourcing, recording, researching and reporting, ETP has an extensive list of companies that we have identified to have been involved in and partaken in scamming their customers or mishandling their orders.
We have a database of over 3500 companies worldwide reported for fraudulent, scamming behaviour and mishandling of orders. To ensure that they are not trying to contact you or are already doing business with you, simply contact us here and we can check it off this database and let you know. This is absolutely FREE, no strings.
We believe as clients and customers your faith in your supplier should be solid and all doubts cast aside. So over the last few years, we have been constantly building and updating this database, aiming to bring you the most complete blacklist available for free on the web.
Every time we have researched, performed due diligence and audited suppliers and manufacturers, they have been added to our database.
It’s not all bad! We also have an ever increasing database of factories that we have personally vetted and done business with ourselves that we know you can safely do business with. We only work with factories that adhere to international safety and quality standards, and meet our requirements for the Panda Whitelist.
At Enter the Panda, we make it our top priority that you are doing business in the safest and most reliable business environment.
Sourcing from China isn’t always black and white, but Enter the Panda is working hard to make it that way.
CHECK THE PANDA BLACKLIST FREE
Tomb Sweeping Day - 清明节 (Qīngmíng Jié)
Most Chinese companies will observe this holiday and this year it has been announced that:
Saturday 31st March and Sunday 1st April are working days
Monday 2nd April – Wednesday 4th April are public holidays
If you find contact with your suppliers, agents and manufacturers over this time is limited, this is most likely why. We’ll be working at Enter the Panda however, so feel free to contact us!
This year marked the 20th Anniversary of the St. Patrick’s Day Irish Ball in Beijing. With the luck of the Irish, St. Patrick’s Day this year landed on a Saturday, so around about the time everyone back home was lining Dame Street for the parade, we were all dolled up for an event that raises tens of thousands of Yuan for great causes each year.
As well as supporting the Beijing GAA and Beijing Celtics clubs, this year the Irish Ball raised money for two fanastic local charities, Jinde and Care for Children. With over 740 guests at this sold out black (and green) tie event and some incredibly generous silent auction prizes from our world sponsors and friends in Ireland, we have raised a record amount this year and shown the world the charity and goodwill the Irish are famous for.
Enter the Panda is really thrilled to have taken part in this event as a Supporting Sponsor, offering our services for the design and sourcing of all the digital and print material, as well as logistical on the ground support.
Entertainment on the night included live bands flown in from Ireland, traditional Irish Céilí dancers and a local cover band. Special thanks also to our guest of honour, the Irish Ambassador to China Declan Kelleher.
Take a look at a pics of the night below and please be sure to visit the charities linked above.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, or as we say over here 爱尔兰国庆节快乐!
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China is simply a massive market growing at an astounding rate. The appetite for foreign brands and products is developing and evolving with every year.
For many companies China is still considered to be an untapped resource, offering huge potential sales and market share. However, these companies are also wary about doing business here for a number of very good reasons.
The possibility of trademark infringement is one very big reason.
Spot the Difference
Over the years, I’ve seen various trademark infringement cases in China. Some of these include:
- Joint Venture (JV) between a Chinese company and a ‘foreign company’ breaks down and the Chinese company walks away with all the trademarks. This was probably registered/owned by the Chinese JV party and only at the breakdown does it appear how important ownership of this is. Albeit an old story, Danone vs Wahaha stands as an amazing insight in to the complexities of trademark ownership and infringement in JV’s.
(See: Danone vs Wahaha)
- Trademark squatting – 3rd party companies/individuals that are keeping an eye out for products they think will enter the Chinese market and trademarking the names/possible names/future names/logos, etc and then using this to extort money.
(See: Reuters Article)
- Competing companies with similar logo colour schemes and sounding names, seemingly hijacking an established international brand to launch their own business.
(See: Starbucks vs XingBaKe)
- Traditional infringement claims – Companies identifying brands they feel infringe on their own trademark, but it is ruled this is not the case. China works on a first come, first served basis with regards to trademarks.
(See: Dell vs DeEr)
If you haven’t covered all your bases, you may find yourself in your own trademark infringement situation. The entity that owns the trademark can take you to court and attempt to stop you from selling that product/brand under that name in that location. If they are successful in their bid to stop you selling under that name, this will add weight to their case in other jurisdictions.
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The following is a simplistic and very basic interpretation of what is going on with Apple’s trademark infringement case for the name “iPad” in China. The thoughts and views expressed here are my personal opinions.
What can we learn from the Apple vs Proview ongoing case?
Mmm... smells expensive.
In the early 2000’s Apple hired a company, Proview Taiwan, to purchase the trademarks for several product names in the Asia area, including in mainland China. I am told the agreement between Apple and Proview Taiwan for this work wasn’t well worded and contained some room for interpretation (some have called this sloppy legal work and poor due diligence).
Proview purchased the trademarks for iPad (amongst other names) on behalf of Apple, sold them to Apple and everyone moved on. Fast-forward a few years and pretty much out of the blue (although there has been rumours of this case for some time) an entity called Proview Shenzhen brings to light that they own the iPad trademark in mainland China and Apple is committing trademark infringement by selling iPad’s under that name. Proview Shenzhen takes Apple to court in Shenzhen and wins, paving the way for further trademark infringement cases against Apple all across the country.
Read more…
Up and up and up!
Some of you may not have heard about the GRI from 1st March 2012 from almost all shipping carriers yet. But you will likely feel the pinch when you notice shipping prices for containers almost doubling after 1st of March.
Here is what is happening and what we’re being told:
Where & What?
The increases will be applied as follows:
Origin Range: From All Asian ports (including Japan, South East Asia, Colombo and Bangladesh)
Destination Range: To all Northern European ports (including UK & Ireland and the full range from Portugal to Russia) to West Med, Adriatic, East Med, Black Sea and North Africa.
Cargo: Dry cargo, OOG’s, Paying empties, Break-bulk and Reefer cargo.
Why?
While some carriers aren’t even offering an explanation for this price hike, others are using a variety of differing excuses. The most common the reasons being offered are: Read more…
Dave’s ayi turned up today with a brand new phone.
You most likely won’t find this on the shelves at your local Carphone Warehouse.
Apparently Nokia is being designed by Apple in California.
Enjoy the pics, comments welcome!
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The world's biggest annual migration
As we read and see more and more in the news that Chinese exports to ‘developed’ countries are considerably reducing it is a time to be very wary about quality. While there is still strong growth from ‘emerging’ markets such as Africa and South America, the reduction in exports from the larger Western markets creates a pressure and strain on all the factories that rely on these orders to maintain their budgeted and normal business.
If Europe and US demand decreases further there will be steep competition between these factories. With this competition comes reduced price margins and this will likely mean compromise on quality as these factories fight to survive. When your products become secondary to the factory’s survival, it is time to spend extra attention to make sure you are still getting the quality you expect.
When the bottom line is threatened, this is when quality problems arise. Instead of focussing their energies on maintaining the standards of your product, factories will be trying to get as many of your products completed as fast as possible so the next order can go through. Factories will likely also attempt to bolster their profits by blaming wage increases and raw material costs. Short-sightedness being a regular player in Chinese business, many factories will let all this happen at the detriment of your relationship with them as a customer. Read more…
Give him something to smile about
Recently I wrote about a little tree cone I found in my Mengniu yoghurt and how it bugged me to the point of never wanting to buy that product again. Today I read about how Wang Xiaoshan, a columnist, published a microblog post calling for Web users to boycott all Mengniu products. This was because it was found in October of this year that some of Mengniu’s products were contaminated with over double the national permitted level of Aflatoxin M1. This substance is reported to cause severe liver damage and liver cancer.
How did this carcinogen get in the products?
Reports are formulating that cows were given Mildewed feed which caused the high levels of this toxin in the milk. If the levels were twice the acceptable amount then surely the feed is allowed to be somewhat mildewed (mouldy) anyway. If your animals eat crap, then why would you not expect the product from them to also be crap? Did no one hear of the adage, you are what you eat?
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