Legal News

On March 10, 2024, the State Council issued the “Decision of the State Council on Amending and Abolishing Some Administrative Regulations”, in which, the “Provisional Regulations on Enterprise Information Disclosure” (hereinafter referred to as the “New Regulations”) has been partially revised. The key changes are as follows: To add the investigation right The New Regulation adds Article 16, which stipulates that the market regulatory authority may exercise functions and powers when investigating into and punishing the acts that are suspected of violating the provisions of the regulation. The specific functions and powers include: (1) entering the business premises of an enterprise to…

The “Penalty Provisions for Fines for Work Safety Accidents (Trial)” (the “2015 version”) is published and implemented in July 2007, and revised in 2011 and 2015. Due to the revision of the “Law on Administrative Penalties” and the “Work Safety Law” in 2021, and the issuance of the “Opinions on Further Regulating the Formulation and Management of Administrative Discretionary Power Benchmarks” by the State Council in 2022, the Ministry of Emergency Management of the People’s Republic of China approved the “Penalty Provisions for Fines for Work Safety Accidents” (the “2023 version”) on December 25, 2023. Compared to the 2015 version,…

Since the “Company Law” is adopted on December 29, 1993, it has undergone multiple revisions. On December 29, 2023, the 7th meeting of the 14th National People’s Congress Standing Committee voted to pass the newly revised “Company Law” (hereinafter referred to as the “2024 Company Law”), which will come into effect on July 1, 2024. The 2024 Company Law has made significant adjustments compared to the current one in many aspects, such as the company capital system, shareholder’s contribution responsibility, protection of minority shareholder’s rights and interests, organizational structure, effectiveness of company resolutions, company registration and etc.. Article Title Key…

Following the revision of the “Patent Law” in 2020 and China’s application to join the “Hague Agreement on International Registration of Industrial Designs” of the World Intellectual Property Organization on February 5, 2022, in response to these changes, the State Council passed the revised draft of the “Implementing Regulations of the Patent Law” on December 11, 2023, which will be implemented from January 20, 2024. The key points of this revision include: To furtherly clarify the criteria for identifying circumstances where novelty factor shall not be affected. Article 24 of the “Patent Law” stipulates that, “Where an invention-creation for patent…

In recent years, the administrative function has gradually changed from pre-supervision to post-supervision in China. The administrative supervision regarding enterprise standardization is no exception. The “Measures for the Promotion of Enterprise Standardization” (hereinafter referred to as the “New Measures”) will come into force on 1 Jan. 2024, which will replace the “Administrative Measures on Enterprise Standardization”. The following is a brief introduction to the main contents of the “New Measures”. Q1: Whether an enterprise must formulate its enterprise standards? A1: It depends. According to Article 7 of the “New Measures”, if enterprise uses mandatory standards, recommended standards, without adding its…

Foreign personnel, foreign companies, and foreign-related businesses inevitably involve foreign public documents, such as identity certificates, subject qualification certificates, credit certificates, ownership certificates, etc. For a long time, any foreign public document which shall be submitted to the administrative or judicial departments in China, shall go through notarization and authentication procedures. Specifically, the document shall be notarized in the country where it is produced (hereinafter referred to as the “host country) , then be authenticated by the ministry of foreign affairs of the host country or the consulate assigned by the ministry of foreign affairs, and finally be authenticated by…

On August 29, 2023, the SAMR issued the “Implementing Measures for the Administrative Provisions on the Registration of Enterprise Names” (hereinafter referred to as the “New Measures”), which revised the 2004 version and will come into effect on October 1. The main reason for this revision is that the upper-level law ” Administrative Provisions on the Registration of Enterprise Names ” came into effect on March 1, 2021, which changed the legal approval system for enterprise names to the voluntarily declaration system for enterprise names, and changed the prior review to the post supervision. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust…

The pre-litigation property preservation, pre-litigation evidence preservation, and pre-litigation injunction are all special pre-litigation measures taken by the court in accordance with the “Civil Procedure Law” to protect the rights and interests of the plaintiff. These pre-litigation measures are unilateral, that is, the defendant’s consent is not required. However, pre-litigation mediation is not the case. It relies on the “People’s Mediation Law” and other relevant laws and regulations, and the people’s court acts as a window to assign the received cases to specially invited mediators or other mediation organizations for mediation after confirming that both parties agree to mediation. Because…

Recently, the SAMR issued the “Provisions on Prohibition of the Abuse of Intellectual Property Rights to Exclude or Restrict Competition” (hereinafter referred to as the “New Provisions”), which will come into effect on August 1, 2023. As one of the supporting regulations of the “Anti-Monopoly Law”, the revised “New Provisions” has increased the number of articles from 19 to 33 compared to the previous version issued in 2020. The main modifications are as follows: Regarding the monopoly agreements Item Key amendments 1 Article 3 of the previous version stipulates that the illegal act starts from the time point of “implementing”…

In mid-June 2023, the General Office of the SAMR issued the “Notice of the General Office of the SAMR on Solidly Conducting the Investigation and Governance of Prominent Issues in the Field of Advertising Administration” (hereinafter referred to as the “Notice”). This “Notice” reflects the key aspects of the administration regarding advertising. The “Notice” is very brief, mainly proposing specific administrative requirements and measures for 10 aspects. The following is a brief introduction and explanation from the perspective of the impact of the “Notice” on advertisers. Reduce the burden in three aspects of “three products and one equipment” The term…