All posts by legal

From the beginning of 2013, several Vertical Monopoly (“VM”) cases have caught the attention of the public. After the National Development and Reform Commission (“NDRC”) investigated “Mao-tai” and “Wuliangye” on their fixed resale price at the beginning of this year, NDRC carried on another investigation on milk manufactures about the same issue in the middle of the year. Recently, Shanghai Higher People’s Court (“Shanghai Higher Court”) made a final judgment on the Rainbow v. Johnson & Johnson case, which evokes the attention of enterprises on VM, especially brings worries to those influential big enterprises on the risks of such articles…

A well-known trademark is registered as the enterprise name by the other party, which brings the conflict between trademark right and enterprise name right, this circumstance is not rare. For the relevant legal issues, the trademark owner shall pay attention to 2 main aspects: (a) the standard on identifying whether the enterprise name has infringed trademark right; (b) the remedies. “Trademark Law” amended in 2008 (“Original Trademark Law”) and the relevant regulations have not stipulated a clear and definite standard on identifying such issues, nor stated distinct remedies, which result in the difficulties for the trademark owner to protect its…

Recently, a criminal case has aroused widespread concern on the infringements of Trade Secret (“TS”), in which a former employee abused the former employer’s client list. 4 former employees obtained the client list of Company A(“A”) by improper means, established a new company, and sold the similar equipments amount to a huge gross income to the overseas clients by pretending to be the branch of A. Eventually, Zhuhai Intermediate People’s Court in the second instance judgment determines that the defendants’(2 companies and 4 individuals) acts have caused loss to A amount to 22,700,000 Yuan(in the first instance judgment, the loss…

According to “Circular of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange on Printing and Distributing Laws and Regulations for Foreign Exchange Management of Service Trade” (Hui Fa [2013] No. 30, “Circular”) released by State Administration of Foreign Exchange(SAFE), reform of foreign exchange management of service trade will be started on 1st Sep. 2013. The reform highlights 2 aspects: the procedures in dealing with foreign exchange will be more convenient, the taxation policies on foreign exchange will be relatively loosen. Measures for the more convenient procedures are stipulated in Guidance for Foreign Exchange Management of Service Trade, and implementation rules, mainly include:…

Over the years, the Chinese enterprises used to be the licensee under a technology licensing contract (“TLC”), this is why the Chinese laws and regulations have stipulated provisions which are more restrictive to licenser under TLC, especially many prohibitive/restrictive provisions on the restrictive terms in TLC. For the licensers, on the one hand, they want to obtain economic benefits by licensing technology, on the other hand, they want to restrict the usage and improvement of the foresaid technology, control the sale of the products produced with the said technology and etc., so the legality and practicality are the two key…

Mr. Wang (“Wang”) and Company A (“A”) have signed “Confidentiality Agreement”, in which stipulated that Wang shall keep confidential A’s trade secrets, including the experimental data and etc., and the confidential term shall be the term of the employment and 2 years after termination of this employment. 2 years after the termination of this employment, Wang disclosed the experimental data to Company B. By using those data, Company B produced similar products and sold them at a low price, which helped it to occupy the market quickly. A found Wang’s disclosure action, it filed a lawsuit against Wang for the…

A preliminary injunction (“PI”) in IP lawsuits is an injunction entered by a court prior to a final determination of the merits of a legal case, in order to restrain a party from going ahead with a course of conduct or compelling a party to continue with a course of conduct until the case has been decided. [1] When China joined WTO, in order to link up the relevant laws and regulations with TRIPS, it has added the relevant provisions on PI in the revised Patent Law, Trademark Law and Copyright Law, with reference to PI system of Britain, USA…

“1 Hz is OUT, please do not confuse consumers”,” Full DC is OUT, 10 years old technology is old”. Midea and Gree, 2 air-conditioner companies, were involved in an advertisements’ fight in April 2012, Jiangxi Province. After the advertisements were launched, both parties alleged that the opposite side had violated “Anti-Unfair Competition Law”, and claimed for compensation. After hearing, the court affirmed that they were air-conditioner sellers, so they are competitors; consumers might be confused by these advertisements on the different brands of air-conditioners, and finally the consumers might make a false decision. The court required both parties to stop…