Legal Notebook

If a trademark for registration is identical with or similar to another party’s trademark which has been registered or preliminarily approved for use on identical or similar goods, the Trademark Office shall reject the application, as stipulated in Article 30 of the “Trademark Law”. In practice, it is very common that a trademark for registration might be rejected for such reason. Where the applicant has used a trademark for a long period, or has spent a large amount of manpower and mone in the promotion, or for other similar reasons, the applicant would try to register such trademark by applying…

The labor contract signed by Shao and Company A expired in Nov. 2014. Company A failed to renew the contract timely. In Feb. 2015, Company A asked Shao to renew the contract, and required Shao to sign the date as Nov. 2014 in the contract. Later, Shao took the vocal record of the talk with the HR manager as the evidence, and required Company A to pay double salary for the periods of not signing the contract. Finally, the court supported Shao’s claim. Article 82 of the “Labor Contract Law” clearly stipulates that an employer shall sign the labor contract…

Many companies tend to use distinctive fonts to attract consumers’ attention in promotion. However, if any company has made a wrong choice, such distinctive fonts might attract the attention of the font or font bank owner/developer, which might trigger a copyright infringement dispute. The reason for such dispute is that the font or font bank might be considered as the work stipulated in the “Copyright Law” in the judicial practice, if any company uses such font without authorization, it shall have infringed the owner/developer’s copyright. Then, when a font or font bank could be considered as the work stipulated in…

Company A issued a Notice of Termination (“1st Notice”) to Sheng 30 days in advance, in accordance with item 2 of Article 40 of the “Labor Contract Law”. 15 days later, Company found that Sheng would retire after 30 days, so it sent another written notice to Sheng. The written notice stated that the company would withdraw the 1st Notice, and the labor contract would continue to perform until Sheng had accomplished the retirement procedure. 30 days after the 1st Notice, Sheng asked Company A to pay the economic compensation. Company A refused to pay. Finally, the court ruled that…

Many companies would like to design graphic works which are related to their industries or products and etc., in promotion or marketing. In order to prohibit others to imitate, many companies tend to apply for the registered trademark for those graphic works. However, for those graphic works which meet the requirements of the “Copyright Law”, it is recommended to file such graphic works for copyright registration in advance or simultaneously. The main reason is that compared with the trademark registration, the copyright registration has the following advantages. First, the trademark application period is longer, so the graphic works might be…

Courtesy social among companies is very common. At the end of each year, companies would organize annual party, customer appreciation party and other similar business activities. The organizer used to prepare different gifts for different participations, and even arrange lucky draws. Where an employee participates in a business event on behalf of a company, and receives a gift, then who shall be the owner of the gift? Some people think that this is a traditional custom, it is appropriate for the employee to own the gift. Other people think that the organizer plans to give the gift to the company,…

Wang is the customer service manager of Company A. Her husband registered Company B, and Wang was one of the shareholder. Company B sold wallpaper to Company A. Later, Company A dissolved the labor contract with Wang with the reason of conflict of interest, which says that Wang failed to declare that Company B had business with the company, and this behavior had violated the “Employee Handbook” regarding an employee shall not cheat the company, such as, to encroach the company’s property, accept bribes, or fraud. Wang insisted Company A had illegally dissolved the labor contract. In this case, the…

Company A owes 2 million to Company B. Company C expressed its willingness to repay for Company A, and signed a repayment agreement with Company B. After repaid 500,000, Company C did not want to repay anymore. Company B asked Company A to repay the remaining debt. Company A defended that the 2 million debt had been transferred to Company C. Then who shall be responsible for the remaining debt? To answer this question, the key point is to define the intention of the repayment agreement. Is it a debt undertaking or a debt accession? According to the “Contract Law”,…

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,…