Publications

Company A sued Company B for a dispute over the sales contract and applied to add Company B’s shareholder, Company C, as a joint defendant. Company C defended that Company A had abused its right of prosecution, because the dispute between Company A and Company B had no business with Company C. Article 63 of the “Company Law” stipulates that, “A shareholder of a one-person limited liability company who is unable to prove that the company’s assets are independent of the shareholder’s personal assets shall bear joint and several liability for the company’s debt.” In addition, Article 20 of the…

In January 2023, ByteDance downsized the company for 10%. In March 2023, Google China initiated a layoff plan. … In 2023, various news of “layoffs” hit the hot search from time to time. From the perspective of enterprises, a layoff plan mainly focuses on two aspects, which are the purpose and objectives of “layoffs”, and the legal risks caused by “layoffs”. The former involves commercial issues, while the latter involves legal issues. The commercial issues mainly include two points: Firstly, the purpose of “layoffs” shall be very clear. Losing money is not the only reason for “layoffs”, because a company…

Regarding different objects of infringement, the infringement behaviors could be divided into various categories, such as the behaviors which have infringed the right holder’s property rights (such as unauthorized possession of another person’s real estate), trademark rights, or the right to life and health of individuals, and so on. Regarding the status of infringement, the infringement behaviors could be divided into an accomplished behavior, such as a car accident, and an on-going behavior, such as a party keeps manufacturing goods that infringe on the patent rights of others over the years. In view of the above, whether the common limitation of…

To use employees’ vehicles for business has gradually become a common phenomenon. There are various reasons, such as a company brings the proposal due to cost saving, or an employee brings the proposal for his own convenience regarding commute and cost. However, there are risks related to such arrangement. This article aims to analyze the main risks and countermeasures related to such arrangement. Risk 1: Infringement If an accident occurs, the employee’s vehicle is determined to bear liabilities, and such accident meets the conditions specified in Article 1191, Paragraph 1, of the “Civil Code”, that is, “Where an employee of an…

Before the revision of the “Trademark Law” in 2013, the well-known trademark was regarded as an honorary title, which became many enterprises’ selling point in marketing. However, the function as a selling point is not the original intention of establishing the well-known trademark system in the “Trademark Law”. Therefore, in 2013, the revision of the “Trademark Law” stipulates that well-known trademarks are expressly prohibited from advertising, which leads many enterprises to reconsider the value of well-known trademarks. Recently, the “Revised Draft of the Trademark Law (Draft for Comments)” has been released, and it involves provisions on strengthening the protection of…

In practice, some employees may delete personal information stored in computers, mobile phones and other devices provided by their employers when leaving their posts. Such deletions are understandable, because they are aimed to protect their personal information. However, some employees may delete the data or work email stored in the server, public disk, etc. without authorization due to anger or other reasons. Such behavior will undoubtedly bring different degrees of adverse effects and obstacles to the employer. If the data involves trade secrets, or any evidence which are useful in other lawsuits in the future, such deletion will bring huge direct…

On January 5, 2023, the NDRC issued the “Administrative Measures for Examination and Registration of Medium and Long-term Foreign Debts of Enterprises” (hereinafter referred to as the “Decree No.56 “), which will be implemented on February 10, 2023. The “NDRC Notice on Promoting the Reform for Filing and Registration-based System for Issuance of Foreign Debts by Enterprises” (FGWZ [2015] No. 2044, hereinafter referred to as the “Notice No.2044”) will be abolished accordingly. Here is a brief introduction of some key contents of the “Decree No.56 ” compared with the “Notice No.2044”. 1.To specify the definition of the foreign debts. The “Notice…

In commercial activities, when parties sign a contract for the supply of certain goods, they usually ignore the nature of the contact, which says a contract of work or a sales contract. However, when a dispute arises, the party who sues the counterparty shall determine the cause of the litigation, such choice of the nature of relevant contract may lead to a significant difference in the judgment. The reason is that the rights and obligations of the parties, the burden of proof, and the jurisdiction provisions (the jurisdiction for a contract of work is mainly the place of processing, and…

The 2022 Cartel World Cup is a big event for football fans. The topics about this event is everywhere, such as in the subway, the office, restaurants and etc. Among those topics, you may have heard people discussed about bet on the winner. In some companies, some colleagues even set up a WeChat group, in which they bet on different winners. However, they have not realized that despite the sports lottery tickets sold by the authorized lottery stations, the rest gambling methods are illegal, no matter individual or group betting, for serious situations, the relevant person may be prosecuted for…

When you see “Substitute for LV” and “Substitute for SK-II”, do you instinctively imagine that the quality and grade of the product may reach the same level as “LV” and “SK-II”? The public may have a positive answer to this question, so some enterprises take advantage of those famous brands by using “Substitute for XXX” as their publicity core, and directly connect their products with those famous brands in the relevant industries, by which they could attract more customers and expand their market. More seriously is that some enterprises have applied for trademark registration with the phase “Substitute for XXX”. From the perspective of commercial…