NNN agreement in China: what it costs and when you actually need one
Author: John, Supplier verification and quality control, ShenzhenPublished: Updated:
Short answer: a comprehensive NNN drafted by a qualified China IP attorney costs $800-2,500 on the open market. Ours is $800, bilingual, drafted through a partner law firm. The price is the least interesting part of the decision. What matters is whether the document is written so that a Chinese court would enforce it, and whether you are signing it with the company that will actually make your product.
What NNN stands for and why NDA is not enough
Non-disclosure, non-use, non-circumvention.
An NDA borrowed from a Western template covers the first one: do not tell anyone. In practice, the losses that hurt in China are the other two. The factory does not leak your drawings to a journalist. It makes a second run for itself, or it finds your customer and quotes them directly.
An NNN written for China addresses all three, and it does so with two features that Western templates usually lack: contractual damages fixed in advance, so you do not have to prove your loss, and a jurisdiction where the counterparty has assets that can actually be frozen.
What changed in 2026
China’s State Administration for Market Regulation issued new Provisions on the Protection of Trade Secrets on 24 February 2026, in force from 1 June 2026. They add an administrative enforcement route with injunctions and fines up to RMB 5 million.
This does not replace your contract. It sits alongside it: the state route deals with trade secret misuse in general, the NNN defines what is secret, what is forbidden and what happens when it is broken, between you and one named factory. In practice, having a signed NNN makes an administrative complaint much easier to argue, because you can show that the information was treated as confidential.
The practical takeaway is that the case for signing one got slightly stronger this year, not weaker.
When you need one
Sign an NNN before you send anything worth copying:
- a design, a drawing, a CAD file, a mould or tooling specification;
- a formula, a recipe or a material specification;
- your customer list, or the identity of your end buyer;
- your brand, packaging or artwork, before samples exist.
That means before the first sample, not after the first shipment. By the time you have a shipment, the factory has everything.
When it is not the priority
- You are buying an off-the-shelf product with no modifications. There is nothing exclusive to protect and the money is better spent on an inspection.
- You are talking to a trading company. An NNN with a middleman does not bind the factory. Establish who makes your product first.
- The order is small and one-off. A $800 contract on a $3,000 order is hard to justify. Judge it against what you would lose, not against the order value.
What it costs, in context
| Item | Market | Ours |
|---|---|---|
| NNN agreement, bilingual, through a law firm | $800-2,500 | $800 |
| Supply or OEM agreement, bilingual | varies widely | $1,200 |
| China trademark, one class | $300-800 in official filing fees plus agent fee | $600 |
Worth comparing against the alternative: recovering a copied product after the fact means litigation in a jurisdiction you do not know, in a language you do not read, against a counterparty who is already selling your design. The contract is the cheap part of that sentence.
Five things to check before you sign
- Chinese is the governing language. A bilingual document is normal, but one version has to prevail and in China it should be the Chinese one.
- PRC law and a Chinese forum. Ideally where the factory’s assets are.
- Fixed contractual damages. A number, agreed in advance, that a court can award without you proving loss.
- The right counterparty. The company name on the contract must match the business licence and the entity that will invoice you.
- A real definition of what is confidential. A clause that covers everything covers nothing.
How we do it
The drafting is done by a partner law firm, not by us, because legal work should come from people licensed to do it. What we add is the part before and after: confirming who you are actually signing with, getting the Chinese company name and licence right, and putting the document in front of the factory in a way that gets it signed rather than argued about.
If you have a product going into tooling, send us the supplier name in Chinese and a description of what you are handing over. We will tell you whether an NNN is the right instrument here or whether your money is better spent elsewhere.
Questions
What is the difference between an NDA and an NNN?
An NDA covers disclosure. An NNN covers non-disclosure, non-use and non-circumvention: the factory may not tell anyone, may not make your product for itself, and may not go around you to your customers. In China the second and third parts are the ones that actually get breached, and a plain NDA does not address them.
Which language and which law?
Chinese as the governing language, PRC law, and a Chinese court or arbitration body with jurisdiction where the factory has assets. An agreement in English under foreign law is not useless, but enforcing it means recognising a foreign judgment in China, which is slow and often impractical. If a contract cannot be enforced quickly it does not change behaviour.
Will a factory sign one?
Serious factories sign NNN agreements routinely, it is a normal part of OEM work. Refusal usually means either the counterparty is a trading company that cannot bind the actual producer, or your terms are unreasonable. Both are useful to learn before the tooling is paid for.
Do I still need one if I register a trademark in China?
They solve different problems. A trademark stops someone selling under your brand. An NNN stops your manufacturer copying your product and selling it unbranded, which is the more common loss. Most buyers who make something distinctive need both.