All posts by legal

Mr. Zheng, the legal representative of Company A sent some negative information related to its competitor, Company B, in a industry QQ group. After the mediation organized by the public security authority, Zheng sent an apology statement in that QQ group. Several months later, Zheng used Wechat to chat with Chen, the client of Company B. Zheng told Chen that Company B stole the technology, the quality of its product and service were very poor. Company B brought a lawsuit against Company A and Zheng for commercial disparagement. The first instance court determined that Company A and Zheng had constituted…

Company A sued Company B for default. Company B provided a written testimony from its warehouse staff, Chen, in which Chen said that he had not received any relevant goods, and the signature of the recipient on the receipt was not his. However, Chen did not appear in the court. Company A claimed that because the witness failed to appear in court, his testimony should not be deemed as a valid evidence. Then, if a witness fails to appear in court, whether his/her testimony shall be deemed valid? The validness of such testimony shall be decided case by case. Overall,…

There is a misunderstanding on the management of registered trademarks that once the trademark has been registered, the registrant only has to pay attention to the renewal procedure. However, if the registrant changes its name or address and etc., it shall file the relevant changes to the Trademark Office in time, otherwise, someday, it might encounter unexpected risks. Risk No.1: The registered trademark might be revoked due to failure to file the changes in time. Paragraph 1, Article 49 of “Trademark Law” stipulates, where, in using a registered trademark, the registrant changes the registered trademark, the name or address of…

Both parties agreed in the purchase contract that if the seller delays the delivery for more than 15 days, the deposit amount to RMB100,000 shall be refunded, and the seller shall also undertake the default fine amount to 20% of the total price. Later then, the seller failed to deliver on time, the buyer filed a lawsuit to the court, and required the seller to refund doubled amount of the deposit, in addition with the default fine. Whether the court would support the buyer’s claim? This question brings out 2 sub-questions. Whether both parties could agree to rule out the…

Company A and Company B entered into a sales and purchase contract, in which it prescribed that the disputes should be under the jurisdiction of the court where Company B is located. Later, Company B filed a lawsuit to the court for the dispute on the payment under this contract. Company A immediately filed a jurisdiction objection, with the reason that the contract was performed where Company A is located. The court of the first instance dismissed the jurisdiction objection. Company A filed an appeal. At this time, Company B got to know that Company A might be transferring important…

Company A is headquartered in Shanghai. The employees who are working in the Hangzhou office of Company A, and they require Company A to pay social insurance in Hangzhou. Since Company A has not establish a branch in Hangzhou, it could not obtain an independent social insurance account, it has to entrust a third party to sign labor contracts with those employees and pay social insurance for them. The HR department is still worried about this arrangement. In practice, due to many reasons, it is not rare for a company to entrust a third party to pay social insurance for…

In commercial activities, in order to cater to the promotion design style or for other reasons, many trademark owners might change registered trademarks. For example, if a registered trademark containing characters and pictures, the owner might use the 2 elements separately. However, these changes may be accompanied with legal risks. Article 49 of “Trademark Law” prescribes that where, in using a registered trademark, the trademark registrant changes the registered trademark without approval, ……the local administrative department for industry and commerce shall order the registrant to make correction within a prescribed time limit; and if the registrant fails to do so…