Your Chinese supplier broke the NNN. The next 48 hours decide what you can still prove.

Most of what decides how this ends happens before any lawyer's letter goes out: whether the evidence is fixed while it still exists, and whether you avoid the few moves that hand the factory a defence. Sent first, a letter mostly tells the other side what to delete.

First step: a 60-minute call, USD 350, to decide whether it's worth pursuing. If it is: 48-hour incident support from USD 3,500, with the evidence plan, a registry check and the first Chinese lawyer's letter out within 48 hours of scope confirmation.

Supplier dispute assessment and litigation planning →

What to do today, before you call anyone

1. Stop arguing on WeChat. Angry messages and threats end up in the other side's evidence bundle. Say nothing you wouldn't want a judge to read.
2. Don't hold back money you owe as leverage. If you owe the factory a payment that is due, withholding it gives the factory a simple debt claim and a reason to keep your tooling. That's usually a better position for it than the ownership argument it would otherwise have to win.
3. Delete nothing. Keep every chat, email and file as it is, including the ones that look bad for you.
4. Don't file a platform complaint or contact the factory's customers yourself yet. The wording and the order of steps matter, and a rejected complaint is hard to take back.
5. Screenshot now, with the URL, date and time visible. For a court, a notarised capture carries more weight than a screenshot, and I'll arrange that. Your screenshots are there in case the page disappears first.
6. Collect the paper. The signed contract with the sealed signature page, the NNN, purchase orders, proforma invoices, payment records, your tooling list with photos, and the chat history with the factory.
7. Find out exactly which company you're dealing with. You need its full registered Chinese name and its unified social credit code. The "factory" you've been talking to is often a trading company, and a letter to the wrong company does nothing.

If this may end up in court, start one thing on day one

A lawyer's letter needs only a simple authorisation signed by your company, which is why it can go out within 48 hours. Suing, arbitrating or asking a court to freeze assets is different. The court will want your company's power of attorney and proof of its existence notarised where you are and then apostilled, or legalised through a Chinese consulate if your country hasn't joined the Apostille Convention. China joined it in November 2023. That paperwork takes weeks. If there's any chance of going to court, start it the same day as the letter.

The four situations, and what the first 48 hours cover

The factory won't return your tooling

I pull together the ownership records and your payment proof, check the reason the factory gives for keeping the tooling, and send a Chinese lawyer's letter demanding its return. Whether the factory can lawfully hold it depends mainly on who owns it and whether money is genuinely due. Where money really is owed, paying the undisputed part and demanding the tooling in the same letter is often cheaper than arguing. If the tooling may be moved or destroyed, I'll tell you whether a court preservation order is worth applying for (see the questions below).

This one has its own page, with a defined assessment: Tooling & equipment recovery →

Your design is on 1688 or Alibaba

The listing is captured and a test purchase made in front of a notary, so the seller and the physical product are tied together. Then I compare the seller with your factory. A platform notice goes in only where a Chinese right supports it: a Chinese design patent or trademark works best, and a copyright claim is possible but harder to prove. If the seller answers with a counter-notice, you have 15 days from when it reaches you to file a complaint or a lawsuit, or the platform restores the listing (E-Commerce Law art. 43). That's why the power of attorney starts on day one.

The factory passed your work to a subcontractor

A letter requires the factory to name every subcontractor and what each one received, stop any further transfer and get your drawings back. Chinese law expects a processing contractor to do the main work itself; if it hands that to a third party without your consent, it stays answerable to you and you may terminate. Auxiliary work can be passed on, with the factory still responsible for the result (Civil Code arts. 772–773). Whether you then approve the subcontractor or pull the work is your decision.

The factory is dealing with your client

Before anything is sent, I check your non-circumvention clause against the competition-law risk, because a clause that covers every customer you've ever had can be attacked as an agreement dividing customers. Where confidentiality and non-use are the stronger ground, the first letter leans on them. How a Chinese court handled one of these cases →

When I'd tell you not to pursue it

• You owe the factory money that is due. Pay the part you don't dispute first. Fighting over tooling while you're in arrears puts you on the wrong side of the argument.
• The seller on 1688 isn't your factory, and you hold no Chinese design patent or trademark. A platform complaint will probably be rejected, and your NNN binds only the company that signed it. A design that's already public is usually too late to register as a Chinese design patent (Patent Law art. 23). There is a six-month grace period where someone disclosed it without your consent (art. 24), but whether it fits your facts needs checking before you rely on it.
• The tooling is old. If remaking it costs less than recovering it, remake it. I'll ask you for a replacement quote early, because that figure is also the basis of any later loss claim.
• The subcontracted work was auxiliary. If no drawings left the site and quality hasn't suffered, ask for disclosure and a signed undertaking from the subcontractor. A fight costs more than it protects.
• The factory met your client on its own. If it met them at a trade fair and used nothing you gave it, the claim is weak.
• You signed with a trading company. Then the factory owes you nothing under the contract, and the first job is to work out which company does.

What it costs, and what's included

60-minute call, USD 350. You send the contract and a short account of what happened beforehand. By the end of the call you'll know whether I think it's worth pursuing and what the first step would cost.

48-hour incident support, from USD 3,500. If you proceed with the 48-hour response within 24 hours after the call, the USD 350 call fee is credited against the incident-support fee. It includes:

• a call to fix the facts, the documents and the result you want;
• an evidence plan, with instructions for any notarised capture or test purchase;
• a registry check on the company involved;
• the first lawyer's letter in Chinese, sent by courier, email and WeChat, with delivery records kept;
• a short written note of the next options, such as a platform notice, a preservation application or a claim, with the likely cost of each.

The 48 hours run from receipt of the contract, the links or photographs and the counterparty details, once the scope is confirmed. Notary appointments and Chinese public holidays can move the notarised steps. Notary, test-purchase, platform and court fees are paid at cost. Preservation applications, negotiation and proceedings are scoped separately. No outcome is promised: a letter can't force a factory to do anything, and it's often only the first step of a record.