Legal News

On 23rd Sep. 2019, SIPO released the newly amended “Guidelines for Patent Examination”, which will come into force from 1st Nov. 2019. The amended version has amended many aspects, among which the amendment on the examination on the design patent related to Graphic User Interfaces (“GUI”) is eye-catching. 1. Requirements on the product’s name The amended version requires the name should indicate GUI’s main purpose and the products to which it is applied. Generally, there must be keywords of “graphical user interface” and a key word of “dynamic” shall be contained in the product name of the dynamic GUI. 2.…

As the product of industrial AI, the industrial internet uses the internet to connect people, machines and objects. The industrial internet has developed rapidly in recent years. In the operation of the industrial internet, a large amount of data would be collected, analyzed, transmitted, and archived. Those data may involve personal privacy, corporate trade secrets, and even state secrets. In order to strengthen the data protection, the state has successively released the “Cyber Security Law”, the “Industrial Control Network Security Risk Assessment Specification”, and national standards. In order to further strengthen the administration on the industrial internet security, MIIT and…

The Shanghai Municipal People’s Government has released the beneficial policy on promoting development of regional headquarters of multinational companies from 2002, and updated the relevant policy every few years. Recently, in order to further attract foreign investments, and level up the quality of foreign investments, the government has updated the policy again, which is the “Several Opinions of Shanghai Municipal People’s Government on Promoting Development of Regional Headquarters of Multinational Companies in the Municipality” (Hu Fu Gui [2019] No.30, hereinafter referred to as the “Opinions”). The main points are as follows: 1. To reduce the determination standards (1) To relax…

For a long time, the monopoly behaviors could be regulated by 3 departments, which are the SAMR, NDRC and MOFCOM. The cross-administration makes the original “Interim Provisions on Prohibiting Monopoly Agreements” (the “Original Provisions”) issued in 2011 by SAIC (the predecessor of SAMR), could not be implemented smoothly. On Mar. 2018, CPC Central Committee issued the “Proposal for Deepening the Reform of the Party and State Institutions”, in which SAMR has been assigned as the department which shall conduct the anti-monopoly enforcement comprehensively. Recently, SAMR has issued 3 supplementary regulations for the “Anti-monopoly Law”. The 3 regulations include, the “Interim…

Due to the lack of the laws and regulations on the protection of shareholders’ rights and interests, there are disputes in the judicial practice. In order to solve those disputes, on 22 Apr. 2019, the “Provisions V” was adopted at the 1,766th session of the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People’s Court, which has come into force on 29 Apr. 2019. The main contents are as follows. 1. Where a related party transaction compromises the interests of a company, even the required procedures have been conducted, the court could still require the relevant shareholders to undertake liabilities. Article 1 of…

On 23rd Apr., 2019, the Tenth Session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People’s Congress passed a decision to amend the “Trademark Law”, which will be taken into force from 1st Nov., 2019. The amendment is aimed to strengthen the administration on 3 categories of behaviors. 1. Applications for trademark registrations in bad faith First, Paragraph 1 Article 4 of the “Trademark Law” has added that applications for trademark registrations in bad faith which are not intended for use shall be refused. Such circumstance could be taken as a basis for opposing a third-party trademark and as a…

In judicial practice, there are many doubts on the application of the “Enterprise Bankruptcy Law” in dealing with creditors’ rights and other issues, while hearing a bankruptcy case. In order to clarify some of those doubts, Provisions (III) as adopted at the 1762th meeting of the Judicial Committee of the Supreme People’s Court on 25 Feb. 2019, and has become effective on 28 Mar.2019. The main contents include: 1. For the common credits and the credits for the purpose of continuing operations during the bankruptcy proceeding, the later shall be prevail Article 2 of Provisions (III) prescribes that for the…

The Foreign Investment Law of the People’s Republic of China (the “Law”), as adopted at the 2nd Session of the Thirteenth National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China on March 15, 2019, is hereby issued, and shall come into force on January 1, 2020, which will replace the “Law on Foreign-funded Enterprises”, “Law on Sino-Foreign Cooperation Joint Ventures”, and “Law on Sino foreign Equity Joint Ventures”(the “Three Laws”). The following content deserves the attention of foreign-invested companies. 1. The approval system would be abolished, and the negative list system shall be implemented Article 4 prescribes that the State…

Many companies would choose Hong Kong as the jurisdiction place when they are involved in foreign civil and commercial activities. Till 2018, mainland and Hong Kong have signed arrangements on 4 aspects: (a) enforcement of arbitration awards; (b) recognition and enforcement of the judgments of civil and commercial cases under consensual jurisdiction; (c) recognition and enforcement of civil judgments in matrimonial and family cases; and (d) to be commissioned obtaining of evidence in civil and commercial cases. In order to cooperate more comprehensively, the Mainland and Hong Kong signed the Arrangement on 18 Jan.2019, and the Arrangement will take effect…

Enterprise Deregistration involves many departments, such as market regulation, taxation, social security, commercial, custom and so on. While dealing with the procedures related to enterprise deregistration, sometimes, an enterprise might be confused about the procedures. Recently, SAIC, MOHRSS, MOFCOM, GAOC and STA have jointly issued the Circular. According to the Circular, the relevant departments would optimize or simplify the procedures for the enterprise deregistration from the following aspects: 1. One-network service To insert a deregistration session on the integrated government service platform, which could update the deregistration information to the relevant departments, and those departments could guide the enterprises on…