Many Kenyans choose Chinese manufacturing because it is cheaper to have products manufactured there and shipped to Kenya than to open a manufacturing plant in Kenya.
Here, the 1000 licenses and permits, and intentional frustration to make you bow to corruption, will make you give up before you start.
Many Kenyans are worried that sharing their product idea will have it stolen by the Chinese at night and hit the market within a week. Yes, that’s true. It happens a lot, even to U.S.-European entrepreneurs.
You cannot trust manufacturers you’ve met on Alibaba if you are developing a new product like a technical gadget, a phone, or a charger, a bike, machinery, or even a blender.
Alibaba is safe for small quantities of product, but you still need to pay someone on the ground to check and verify the goods before they’re shipped.
We’ve had cases where business people pay traders on Alibaba and receive a very different quality of item. This brings unnecessary losses. Wakimani on Facebook and TikTok has covered this with her experience, as have many other victims.
When you trademark something in Nairobi, it will not work in China. Understand that patents are territorial, so you should also file your patents in China.
This Is How to Protect Yourself as an Innovator.
It is important to note that China only cares about who submits trademark paperwork first. So, when you hand over your design, and they register it in China before you, they legally own it.
Your NDA Registered in Kenya will not help you.
This Is What You Can Do.
- Register your trademark first in China, by going there and working with a legal team.
- Don’t hand over your entire blueprint to some factory you meet online.
- Get an NNN agreement – (Non-Disclosure, Non-Use, and Non-Circumvention) written in Chinese and enforceable in a Chinese court. Make the Chinese version the official one.
- If you are going to be showing your products, prototypes, or designs to a Chinese factory, and do not want your Chinese manufacturer competing against you with your products, an NNN Agreement is a must have.
- Work with an IP attorney to file for Design or Invention Patents with the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA)
- Use a detailed OEM – Original Equipment Manufacturer – agreement that outlines your exact quality standards, delivery terms, and specific penalties for breach of contract, written in Chinese characters and governed by Chinese law.
- When paying for custom molds or specialized equipment to manufacture your idea, have a Mold/Tooling Protection Agreement clearly stating that you own the molds, the manufacturer cannot use them to produce goods for anyone else, and you have the legal right to move the molds to a different factory.
- Hire independent third-party inspectors like those vetted by Asia Quality Focus to review products at the factory before final payment is released.
- If your product involves multiple components or proprietary software, consider having the final assembly or the integration of key parts done outside of China to prevent the factory from seeing the full picture of your innovation.
- Obtain the Chinese manufacturer’s actual Chinese company name for verification by comparing it with the company’s business license, and check with the official Chinese government registry to see if your Chinese manufacturer has actually been registered as a Chinese company. And if there have been legal issues filed against them.
This isn’t a direct recommendation, but here are some firms you can contact when you need a product manufactured in China. Do your due diligence.
- Yucheng IP Law
- EricOnChina
- Seraph International (Hong Kong) Limited
Commercial law firms in Nairobi that co-counsel with mainland Chinese law firms to guarantee that international supplier agreements are enforceable in Chinese courts.
- Anjarwalla & Khanna
- ALN Kenya
- Kaplan & Stratton