Legal Notebook

Article 3 of the “Labor Contract Law” stipulates that the conclusion of a labor contract shall follow the principle of good faith. Furthermore, Article 26 stipulates that a labor contract which is concluded by use of fraudulence is invalid. The above-mentioned provisions are the main legal basis for the application of the principle of good faith in employment. However, if an employee has provided fraudulent information while concluding a contract, when his employer found out such fraudulence, and claimed the contract is invalid, or rescinded the contract with the reason that the employee had violated the internal rules and regulations,…

In recent years, the revised “Trademark Law”, “Copyright Law”, and “Patent Law” have added punitive damages clauses and raised the upper limit of statutory damages. However, the guidance on applying punitive damages clauses is not clear. On March 2, 2021, the Supreme People’s Court issued the “Interpretation of Supreme People’s Court on the Application of Punitive Damages in Hearing Civil Cases of Infringement upon Intellectual Property Right ” (Fa Shi [2021] No. 4, hereinafter referred to as “Interpretation of Punitive Damages”), which has been implemented on March 3, 2021. The “Interpretation of Punitive Damages” has 7 articles, and the key…

Compared with the previous “Guarantee Law” and the relevant judicial interpretations, the “Civil Code” which came into force on Jan. 1, 2021 has amended the guarantee term. According to the “Civil Code”, where there is no agreement in the contract between the creditor and the guarantor on the guarantee term or such agreement is unclear, the guarantee term shall be six months from the date of expiration of the term for performing the principal obligation. Meanwhile, according to Article 32 of the “Interpretation of Supreme People’s Court on Application of the Security System under the Civil Code”, where a guarantee…

When you read this title, you may have two reactions: (a) employees who are addicted to smoking think this is too harsh; (b) other employees who are the victims of “second-hand smoke” take it as a good idea, because it can prohibit more people from smoking in the working place. Which one is the right answer? Let’s see. The first circumstance: the employer’s internal rules and regulations stipulate that employees who smoke in non-smoking areas shall be fired. In the past, some judges would denied the rationality of such provisions from the perspective that smoking would not cause serious harm…

“X Sports Franchise Store” is an online store which has the authorization of a well-known brand H Racket. The store purchased some counterfeit rackets at low prices, and mixed those fakes with the real ones. H Racket found the store had sold fakes, so it terminated the authorization. However, some consumers believes that H Racket’s authorization is the reason for them to buy those fakes, so H Racket shall undertake partial of the liabilities for selling fakes. If consumers take manufacturers as one of the defendants, whether the manufacturers would be ordered to undertake partial of the liabilities? From the…

The 2021 Spring Festival is approaching, but the epidemic becomes severer in many cities. Almost all the local governments have called on citizens to stay at their current cities during the Spring Festival, many universities have announced that students could leave the campus upon the approval of the universities. In view of the reactions of local governments and universities, considering the employees’ health and the business arrangement after the festival, many enterprises hope that employees could stay at the current cities during the Spring Festival. Can enterprises prohibit employees from going hometown for the Spring Festival? When the epidemic breaks…

Company Y required Company X to construct an E system, and provide maintenance services. Based on Y’s requirement, in the contract, both parties agreed that X’s staffs could only communicate and send documents by using the mailboxes provided by Y, and X’s staffs could not copy, or forward to other mailboxes. During the implementation of the contract, X’s staffs forwarded relevant emails to X’s company mailbox by BCC. Later then, both parties had disputes on the implementation of the contract, and X planned to use the relevant emails as evidence, but it worried that such evidence might not be accepted…

Mr. L joined company S in October 2012, and did not inform S of his medical treatment history. In 2016, S found L had been identified as a grade 8 labor dysfunction. S believed that L’s labor contract was concluded by use of fraudulent, so S terminated the labor contract. A dispute arised. In practice, if an employee conceals medical treatment history, some employers would terminate the labor contract in accordance with Article 26 of the “Labor Contract Law” on the grounds that the relevant labor contract was concluded by use of fraudulent. S is one of those employers. Some…

In May 2019, Zhang borrowed 100,000 CNY from Lee for purchasing an apartment. Zhang issued an IOU, in which Zhang promised to repay in 1 year. Later, due to the epidemic, Lee was afraid that he would not able to recover the debt on the due time; he planned to ask Zhang to repay earlier. Lee went to Zhang’s home, and Zhang was not at home, but Lee met Zhang’s classmate Sun who visited Zhang’s parents. Lee told Sun about Zhang’s debt, Sun decided to offer a guarantee and signed on the IOU. In May 2020, Zhang failed to repay…

Lee had worked for 11 years, and was diagnosed with lung cancer after he had joined the new company for less than 1 year. Lee took sick leave. The company decided that Lee’s medical treatment period (hereinafter referred to as the “Period”) should be 6 months which is calculated in accordance with his working years. However, Lee insisted that his illness was a special disease, so the Period should be 24 months. They had the disputes on the Period. Regarding the Period for employees suffering from special diseases, the Lao Bu Fa [1995] No.236 stipulates that for employees suffering from…