Case Study: China

A major disagreement between two partners was ready to bring their long-standing, successful worldwide alliance to its knees. For nearly 20 years, FamilyMart Co. Ltd. (FamilyMart) Japan and Ting Hsin International Group (Ting Hsin) of Taipei have worked together under a brand licencing agreement to build and manage FamilyMart convenience stores in mainland China. The alliance proved to be a success, with FamilyMart outlets topping the list of foreign convenience store brands. However, on May 15, 2019, breaking news swept the business media, reporting that FamilyMart Japan had filed a lawsuit against Ting Hsin and requested a mandatory dissolution of their partnership. A bitter conflict erupted between the two partners, and the cooperation’s future looked bleak. With their 20-year trademark licencing agreement coming to an end in a few months, both partners had to decide whether to renew it and, if so, how to renegotiate the terms.