Publications

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…

Different people have different opinions on this topic. In fact, this topic does have different answers. Let’s take a look at 2 cases firstly. Case 1: Zhan went to a hospital on December 25, 2019, and was diagnosed with discogenic low back pain and soft tissue injury. The doctor issued a sick leave of one month. On the same day, Zhan asked his colleague to send the sick leave certificate to the company, and then flew to Canada. Due to the outbreak of COVID-19, Zhan was unable to return as scheduled. When the company doubted his trip to Canada, he defended…

The “Pay When Paid” (hereinafter referred to as the “PWP”) clause usually applied in the chain contracts. The typical feature of PWP is that there are two contracts, a party sets the payment of the upstream party as the precondition for the payment to the downstream party. Such clause could help the party to reduce risks related to the payment, which is widely used in contracts such as construction, advertising, technical services, bulk cargo transactions and so on. However, the validity of such clause is not clearly defined in the current laws, so it is impossible to affirm such clause…

Many companies prefer to use maps to mark business scope, by which they could introduce their scale or business scope. Article 9 of the “Advertising Law” stipulates that advertisements shall not, …… (4) harm the dignity or interests of the State and divulge State secrets; ……” Since 2017, administrative penalty cases due to the improper use of maps are very common. In practice, although many companies hope to avoid such penalty, many of them do not have a comprehensive understanding of how to avoid such risk. After analyzed the previous administrative penalty cases, in order to avoid such risk, it is…

Company B sued Company A regarding a contract dispute, and won the lawsuit. A failed to perform the effective judgment, so B applied for enforcement. As W is the legal representative of A, B applied the court for adopting measures on restriction of high-level consumption on W. In 2019, A changed its legal representative from W to Z, and then W applied to the court for lifting the order of such restriction. (See (2020) Yue 01 Zhifu No. 349) It can be seen from the above case that in some cities, a legal representative adopted with such restriction could replace…

The video of the “Tan Tan Transportation”(谭谈交通) was removed from several major internet platforms, which is the latest typical network infringement case. In similar cases, the obligee may claim for infringement against the infringer and relevant internet platforms. The “Safe Harbor Principle” derived from the “Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the United States”, which has built a safe harbor for internet platforms, that is, unless an internet platform ignores the obvious infringement and does not take corresponding measures, it could be exempted from liabilities according to this principle. However, in recent years, there are changes in the legislative and judicial…

In commercial transactions, the parties often agree on high liquidated damages in the contract, by which they hope that the counterparty’s behavior could be bound more effectively, and the observant party could obtain maximum relief in the event of a breach of contract. For example, in the “Agreement on Exclusive Purchase of Audio and Video Programs”, Company A and Company B agreed that if the drama failed to be broadcast on the agreed satellite TV channel and time period, Company B had the right to terminate the agreement, and Company A shall pay liquidated damages amount to 30% of the total amount of the payment, which is RMB10.8…

Lau was the general manager of Company A. A terminated the labor contract with Lau on the grounds that the board of directors had made a resolution to dismiss him. Lau filed a labor arbitration. The labor arbitration committee, the court of first instance and the court of second instance all held that the dismissal is illegally. Why Company A lost the lawsuit? Paragraph 9, Article 46 of the “Company Law” stipulates that the board of directors has the right to decide on appointment or dismissal of the general manager and his remuneration, and decide on appointment or dismissal of deputy managers and…

Company A was punished by the administration authority for stating, “The first store for brand “XX” in XX city”, “The Only Seller for Free Shipping”, on its company website. A foreign-invested Company C entrusted Company D to design its company website, in which “Taiwan” and “Hongkong” were listed beside “China” in the introduction of the company. Later then, Company C and Company D were punished by the administration authority. The basis of the above 2 punishments is the “Advertising Law”. Those companies could not understand such punishment. They insist that these are only the description of the company on its…