Mergers & Acquisitions, Intellectual Property & Arbitration
MAIPA
Eurasian Trade & Investment Law with a Global Reach
 |
 |
 |
MAIPA is a network of law firms and individual lawyers having a robust professional track record in the fields of mergers & acquisitions, intellectual property and arbitration as well as in international trade, competition and investment law.
MAIPA lawyers provide legal advice and representation to small and medium sized enterprises from China wishing to expend their commercial activities to Switzerland, the European Union, the Americas and Northern Africa.
MAIPA lawyers offer legal services in the areas of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), intellectual property (IP, including patents, trademarks, copyright, design, unfair competition) and arbitration (dispute settlement, mediation and litigation) as well as international and regional trade law, competition law and investment law, and thus enabling Chinese small and medium sized entreprises (SMEs) to take full advantage of free trade agreements.
MAIPA lawyers have recognized legal expertise in international trade law.
Policy developments in the European Union increasingly tend to restrict market access by Chinese investors purchasing companies and assets. In contrast, Switzerland and China have concluded a free trade agreement with China on 6 July 2013 providing new market opening opportunities.
The Sino-Swiss FTA is China’s first free trade agreement with one of the world’s top 20 economies and the first one with a continental European country. The Sino-Swiss FTA complements the free trade agreement between Hong Kong and Switzerland in force since 1 October 2012. These FTAs confirm the increasing importance of bilateral trade between China and Switzerland that offers China a gateaway to the European Union.
Chinese manufacturers can today combine the advantages of the Sino-Swiss FTA with those of Switzerland’s free trade and mutual recognition agreements with the EU and EFTA and with any of Switzerland’s 27 free trade agreements with 38 other partners. Switzerland can serve as China’s gateway to all these countries, provided applicable rules of origins are complied with.
The European Union and China are two of the biggest traders in the world. China is now the EU's second-biggest trading partner behind the United States, and the EU is China's biggest trading partner. In 2013 the EU and China launched negotiations for an Investment Agreement. The aim is to provide investors on both sides with predictable, long-term access to EU and Chinese markets and to protect investors and their investments.
Many Swiss and European SMEs started in recent years to plan the succession of owners and management. These companies offer new business opportunities for mergers and acquisition (M&A) and intellectual property (IP) for Chinese entrepreneurs interested inexpending commercial activities in Europe.
The MAIPA network proposes to Chinese small and medium sized enterprises tailor made legal services in Switzerland, the European Union, the Americas and Africa as well as along the New Silk Road (Belt and Road Initiative). Services include transaction related due diligence and negotiations of asset deals, share purchase agreements (SPA) and mergers as well as in intellectual property rights and arbitration. Professor Jianqiang Nie from Wuhan University contributes to MAIPA as an expert in Chinese and international intellectual property law.
MAIPA law firms remain independent from Chinese law firms while working on a regular basis with Chinese lawyers representing SMEs that seek to expend their business and to invest in Europe, the Americas and Africa. MAIPA law firms are commited to be responsive to their clients‘needs and commercial ambitions having a transnational reach. MAIPA is based in Geneva, Switzerland, and incorporated as an association under Swiss law (MAIPA Verein).
Please find more information on the MAIPA law firms under section "Network" of this website.