Recently, Francesco Carrelli Palombi, founding partner of the Italian law firm Benches Law, visited Beijing Longan (Guangzhou) Law Firm for a business exchange. He was received by Ge Xiangrong, deputy director of the Longan Guangzhou management committee and senior partner; Zhang Jing, senior partner; Ou Yingshi, partner; and Yang Lun and Pan Yetong, attorneys. Focusing on China–Italy cross-border legal services, the two sides exchanged views on EU market compliance, intellectual property protection, and cross-border business cooperation.
At the start of the meeting, Ge Xiangrong welcomed Francesco Carrelli Palombi and introduced Longan Law Firm’s background, business development, and foreign-related legal service practice. He noted that as Chinese companies continue to deepen their global operations, demand keeps growing for legal services covering European market compliance, intellectual property protection, and cross-border dispute resolution. He expressed the hope that the exchange would serve as an opportunity to deepen mutual understanding and jointly explore practical cooperation opportunities in cross-border legal services between the Chinese and Italian sides.
Francesco Carrelli Palombi then introduced Benches Law’s background, practice areas, and service features, and, in light of the actual needs of Chinese companies entering the Italian and EU markets, shared the firm’s long-accumulated practical experience and significant results in relevant areas of the EU market.
During the business exchange session, the two sides held in-depth discussions on legal issues commonly faced by Chinese companies entering the EU market, covering GDPR data protection, e-commerce and tax regulation, employment, trade remedies, and cross-border dispute resolution. Drawing on Italian and EU legal practice, Francesco Carrelli Palombi gave a systematic introduction to local compliance supervision and dispute resolution mechanisms. Both sides agreed that Chinese companies expanding into the European market should improve their internal compliance systems for data, supply chains, employment, and tax in advance, and should design dispute resolution clauses in cross-border contracts carefully so as to better guard against operational risks.
On intellectual property protection, the two sides exchanged views on trademark, design, and copyright protection systems and brand enforcement mechanisms in Italy and the EU, and discussed practical issues including non-traditional trademarks, customs intellectual property protection, and infringement investigations. Both sides agreed that companies should plan their intellectual property strategy in advance in line with their overseas market layout and brand development strategy, and should combine registration, monitoring, customs protection, and judicial remedies to build a more complete system for protecting overseas brand rights and interests.
In addition, the two sides held full and friendly discussions on the legal service needs of Chinese-invested enterprises, cross-border legal service models, and cooperation mechanisms between Chinese and Italian law firms. They also plan to jointly hold themed salons and seminars in the future on topics such as cross-border investment and legal practice for Chinese companies, so as to deepen regular exchanges and business collaboration between lawyers in the two locations.
The exchange further strengthened the cooperative ties between Longan Guangzhou and Benches Law and laid a foundation for deeper collaboration in key areas such as EU market compliance, intellectual property protection, and cross-border dispute resolution. Going forward, the two firms will draw on their respective professional strengths in the Chinese and European legal service markets, deepen resource matching and business coordination, and provide more efficient and professional legal support for Chinese companies expanding into Europe.