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  • 2019-11-15
  • 3 minutes Read
Is it Valid to Announce the Internal Rules by Electronic Means?

Company A dissolved the labor contract with Ding, with the reason that Ding had severely violated the “Administrative Measures on Labor Discipline of Company A”, due to Ding’s habitual absenteeism. Ding filed a labor arbitration against Company A. Ding stated that Company A released the internal rules on its official website, the reader had to click the link and download the document, so this was not the way to announce as required by relevant laws. The labor arbitration committee supported Ding’s claim, but both the courts of the first-instance and second-instance rejected Ding’s claim. The “Labor Contract Law” prescribes that…

  • 2019-10-15
  • 3 minutes Read
When is the Employment Relationship with Foreign Employees established?

A Canadian Mr. D was hired by Company W as its General Manager. Both parties signed a labor contract. Later, Company W dissolved the contract. Mr. D filed a lawsuit against Company W and claimed for the economic compensation. The case was reviewed by the first and second trials. Finally, the Guangdong Provincial High People’s Court reheard the case, and determined that the contact was invalid, which means Company W did not have to pay the economic compensation. (The plot has been simplified, for details, please find (2018) Yue Gao Fa Shen Jian Min Ti Zi No.63) Article 7 of…

  • 2019-10-15
  • 4 minutes Read
Setting Other Party’s Trademark as the Search Keyword on Internet

If you type “金夫人” on the search engine Baidu, the first three links show “金夫人GOLDEN LADY” and relevant pictures; the official website of the trademark right owner Company J and its relevant information; and the promotion information with the words as “南京婚纱摄影领军品牌M公司”. Company J filed a lawsuit against Company M and Baidu by claiming that both parties had jointly infringed its trademark right and constituted false propaganda. The similar cases are not rare. More and more companies are using internet for promotion. In order to attract attention, some companies tried to stick a “tag” by using other party’s trademark. If…

  • 2019-10-15
  • 2 minutes Read
Guidelines for Patent Examination (2019) will come into force from 1st Nov. 2019

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.…

  • 2019-09-15
  • 3 minutes Read
The “Guiding Opinions on Strengthening Industrial Internet Security” (the “Guiding Opinions”) has been released on July 26, 2019

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…

  • 2019-09-15
  • 4 minutes Read
Risk Prevention of Software Service Contracts

More and more companies apply software in handling business operations. They have to sign a software service contract (“SSC”) or a software development contract (“SDC”). In practice, many companies only pay attention to the payment article, which stipulates that the commissioning party would pay upon the acceptance of the deliveries. This opinion is very dangerous. In fact, in the 57th issue of the “Legal Notebook”, we have analyzed the common risks and risk prevention methods from the perspective of the commissioning party in the paper “Risk Prevention for Software Development Contracts”. We will analyze the risks and risk prevention methods…

  • 2019-09-15
  • 3 minutes Read
Feasibility and Attentions to Early Retirement System

An enterprise with a longer history would have more employees who are close to the retirement age. Some of those employees may have less improvement in skills, and be lack of energy. If they still occupy the positions, the successors will have fewer opportunities to practice. Under such circumstance, more and more enterprises are considering to establish the early retirement system. In practice, the early retirement system generally includes 3 categories: (1) to terminate a labor contract by negotiation, and the enterprise would pay a compensation in a lump sum; (b) the employee quits the position, and does not have…

  • 2019-08-15
  • 3 minutes Read
Several Opinions of Shanghai Municipal People's Government on Promoting Development of Regional Headquarters of Multinational Companies in the Municipality will be implemented on September 1, 2019

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…

  • 2019-08-15
  • 3 minutes Read
Is It Risky to Ignore the Social Insurance of Foreigners?

In the past many years, foreign-invested companies would purchase commercial insurance for foreigners instead of participate in social insurance, because China had not set any requirements in any laws or regulations, and normally, the offshore parent companies would participate in social insurance for foreigners in their own countries. The “Social Insurance Law” has come into force on July 1, 2011, in which it stipulates that foreigners employed within the territory of the People’s Republic of China shall participate in social insurance analogically in accordance with this Law. And soon afterwards, the “Interim Measures for Social Insurance System Coverage of Foreigners…

  • 2019-07-15
  • 3 minutes Read
“Interim Provisions on Prohibiting Monopoly Agreements” will come into force on Sep. 1, 2019

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…