Nathan Harpainter

Co-Managing Editor of SINOTALKS®

Nathan Harpainter is an attorney working primarily in the areas of civil and probate litigation.  He also has experience advising clients in relation to cross-border trademark issues between the United States and China.  Despite his demanding legal practice, he is committed to advancing global understanding of China and Chinese law, a goal that is rooted in his long-term interest in China, Asia, politics, and international relations.

As a Co-Managing Editor of SINOTALKS®, Mr. Harpainter leverages his extensive experiences and skills acquired during his years serving as an Associate Managing Editor of the China Guiding Cases Project (“CGCP”) at Stanford Law School to ensure the high-quality of SINOTALKS® publications and to help develop this rapidly growing repository of knowledge about Chinese law and policy.  While serving as an Associate Managing Editor of the CGCP, he helped finalize all English versions of China Law Connect, a well-respected quarterly English and Chinese journal that featured articles contributed by U.S. and Chinese judges and other experts and that ultimately brought the total number of CGCP website users to more than 200,000.  Mr. Harpainter also assisted with the translation and research of many other articles published by the CGCP.  In addition, he took the lead to conduct a survey soliciting practitioners’ comments on China’s International Commercial Courts immediately after these new institutions were established and then co-authored an article with his team to analyze the survey data and discuss related insights.

Prior to pursuing his legal career, Mr. Harpainter worked as a research associate focusing on China and East Asian politics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C., and as a research intern at the Beijing Office of International Crisis Group.  Mr. Harpainter has a J.D. from Santa Clara University School of Law and a B.A. and M.A. in International Policy from the Monterey Institute of International Studies.

For more information about this author’s analysis, please read:

Determining Damages in Trade Secret Cases: China’s Landmark Case vs. U.S. Experiences
Determining Damages in Trade Secret Cases: China’s Landmark Case vs. U.S. Experiences

Judicial protection of intellectual property (“IP”) rights in China has been perceived to be limited because, among other problems, the amounts of damages awarded by Chinese courts in IP infringement cases have historically been small. However, this state of affairs may be changing, as China’s Supreme People’s Court (“SPC”) rendered a landmark judgment in a case involving large-scale infringement of trade secrets, allowing the victims to receive an amount equivalent to almost USD 90 million as compensation. As analyzed by Nathan Harpainter and David Zhao, Co-Managing Editors of SINOTALKS®, the innovative approach taken by the SPC to calculate the damages in the landmark case is essentially based on the concept of “unjust enrichment”. The steps followed by the SPC to do the calculation are helpful but inadequate. To help China develop its jurisprudence in this important area, the two co-authors discuss related U.S. experiences.

For more information about SINOTALKS®‘s publications, please visit:

  • SINOTALKS® In Brief
    Written by Dr. Mei Gechlik, SINOTALKS® In Brief is a newsletter that demystifies China law, policy, and business to help readers craft evidence-based strategies for their China-related issues.
  • SinoExpress™
    SinoExpress™ covers significant international developments and related regulatory changes in China.
  • SinoInsights™
    The SinoInsights series features analyses contributed by judges, lawyers, and other professionals as well as high-quality translations of select court cases in China to share key legal developments in or related to China.