Corporation Archives - Page 4 of 12 - Bridge IP Law Commentary

An Analysis on Chinese and Foreign Entrepreneurs’ Equity Disposal Options

Posted on October 21, 2014 by yytbest

(By Wang Qiurui) Selfishness is nature of human beings and difficult to get rid of, out of which a problem arises that employees and even high-level managerial staff of a company care much more about their own interest than the company’s rise and fall when dealing with managerial issues. Adam Smith raised a question related to such problem in his masterpiece the Wealth of Nations, known as ‘Smith’s Difficult Question’.

Many past and living Chinese and foreign entrepreneurs have turned to equity to find a way of thinking a solution to overcome such weakness of human beings. However, being governed by the current Company Law of P.R.China, settlement of a case in such a way would give rise to many legal issues. It should be more advisable for Chinese entrepreneurs to create and apply to their businesses a phantom equity system.

Will Alibaba’s App Information Leakage Trigger Strict Supervision and Regulation on Mobile Games?

Posted on October 9, 2014 by yytbest

(By You Yunting) “疯狂来往” App, an in-game of China’s leading e-commerce Alibaba(NYSE: BABA)’s Messaging App Laiwang, was blamed for user’s private data leakage, according to the news. “疯狂来往” App (pronounced as “Feng Kuang Lai Wang”) was made to record players as one persons holds up a mobile device displaying words and others use gestures to provide clues to an answer, a little like guessing game. Considering that “疯狂来往”App is an interactive game among friends and acquaintances, many of the players were dressed rather casually when caught on the videos and some videos shows users in their underwear or naked while playing the game at home with family or friends. Worsen the videos also involved private information of teenagers under eighteen. Regardless of its sharing features into social networking websites such as Wechat and Qzone, some sharing videos were also automatically stored on Youku.com, a video website, which anyone can read online.

Is It Legal for Foreign Company to Transfer User Data out of China?

Posted on August 27, 2014 by yytbest

(By Wang Ting) Recently, China State broadcast CCTV, imposed Apple Inc. that its iPhone’s ability to track and time-stamp user’s frequent locations without user’s permission infringed user’s privacy. Even though the news impacts turned out to be small in western countries, large amounts of Medias in China reported the news (Note: the link is in Chinese). Within the quicker development of internet and mobile internet, personal data and information has become increasingly frequent cross region and even breaking national boundaries, thus making the transfer of personal data more smoothly. In today’s post, at the beginning of Apple’s device’s location tracking abilities, we will introduce regulations and legal risks concerning how enterprises transfer user data from China to third countries.

Is It Invalid to Establish Joint Ventures between Foreign Companies and Chinese Citizens in China?

Posted on May 12, 2014 by yytbest

(By You Yunting) Today we would like to introduce a typical case concerning the situation where a Chinese citizen tries to form a joint venture with a foreign individual. Pursuant to Chinese laws and regulations, foreign companies, enterprises, other commercial organizations and individuals (the “foreign investors”) can only form joint ventures with Chinese companies, enterprises and other commercial organizations, rather than with Chinese citizens. For these reasons, the court determined that the contract agreed upon by the Chinese citizens and foreign investors was invalid and each party should undertake the expenses and costs of establishment individually.

Does QVOD Business Model Touch China’s Warning line of Government Regulatory?

Posted on April 24, 2014 by yytbest

(By You Yunting) Abstract: The nature of “QVOD Business Model” is that both large and small-sized companies are to jointly infringe online copyrights. Under the facts that large companies provided technology and commerce and then small companies engaged in infringing works, such cooperation set up an environment of competitive advantages resulting from weak regulatory. This cooperation’s true cleverness comes from the deepen understanding of safe harbor rules and the Internet’s globalization and anonymity. If “QVOD Business Model” is continuous operating, such model may be cumulative legal risks and thus is likely that a criminal investigation can make an end of “QVOD Business Model”.

Symantec Corporation Uses both Criminal and Civil Methods to Defeat Piracy in China

Posted on April 9, 2014 by yytbest

(By You Yunting) It is well known that China is facing a serious problem over piracy. When claiming for his enforcement over cases suspected to involve criminal offences, the right holders often report to the Police attempting the use of criminal laws to strike with piracy. Furthermore, in accordance with Chinese laws and regulations, upon the completion of criminal proceeding, the party against the piracy may, on the basis of criminal judgment paper, file civil lawsuits against the pirated to receive compensation. Today we will introduce a case concerning Symantec Corporation’s enforcement against the pirated party, where Symantec Corporation instituted lawsuits against the pirated, as well as the companies which contributed to make pirated CDs and print the envelopes of the pirated software. As such, its lawsuits and claims are being backed by Shanghai courts.

Liabilities of Contributed Capital Surreptitiously Withdrawn in New China Corporate Law

Posted on March 31, 2014 by yytbest

(By You Yunting) In the end of 2013, China issued a revised Corporate Law updating the provisions about the contributed capital, as discussed in our previous post the Amendment to the Corporate Law. Today we will discuss the legal liabilities of promoters and shareholders with regards to the required contributed capital being surreptitiously withdrawn.

Assumption of liability

Pursuant to the updated Corporate Law, any shareholder who fails to make full payment of the capital contributions at the establishment of the company shall be jointly and severally liable for refunding the paid-in capital – in accordance with the amount of registered capital. As such, it is when the company is unable to pay its debts that the shareholders shall assume the liability of surreptitiously withdrawing the contributed capital.

Why Shanghai Court Not Accept Nikon D600’s Dispute over False Advertisement?

Posted on March 26, 2014 by yytbest

(By You Yunting) Abstract: If Shanghai plans to become an international financial center, it is judicial fairness that is an important aspect of a very good investment environment that must be provided by governments. If the court attempts to protect an enterprise beyond the letter of the law, it will cause greater long-term damage on China’s interests, and on fairness and justice than any immediate benefits obtained now, whatever companies company achieves those benefits.

On March 15, 2014, China CCTV exposed the professional SLR quality problems of Nikon D600 SLR, where black spots frequently appear on photographs. After this exposure, our team, acting as a representative of our client Mr. Xu, brought the case concerning Nikon into court. On March 18, 2014, my colleague Luo Yanjie and our client filed a legal complaint to Huangpu District Primary People’s Court.

Why Wasn’t Baidu Library Protected Under Safe Harbor Principle?

Posted on March 25, 2014 by yytbest

(By Luo Yanjie) In our previous post Baidu Library Ordered to Pay Huge Huge Compensation on for Copyright Infringement, we discussed the amount of the compensation in the case of Beijing China Youth Book Inc. vs Baidu Library. Yesterday, we found out the reasoning and judgment held by Beijing No.1 Intermediate People’s Court. Thus, in today’s post we will analyze the legal basis about this case from the perspective of the judgment.

Introduction to the Case:

Plaintiff: Beijing China Youth Book Inc. (the “Youth Book Inc.”)

Baidu Library Makes Huge Compensation on Copyright Infringement for Publishing Press

Posted on March 20, 2014 by yytbest

(By You Yunting) Recently, in the proceeding litigation alleging copyright infringement, Beijing China Youth Book Inc. vs Baidu Library, the Beijing No.1 Intermediate People’s Court issued a judgment requiring that Baidu compensate Beijing China Youth Book Inc. 350,000 Yuan. When compared with the 20,000 Yuan compensation required for a pirated movie, the ordered compensation is much larger than expected. This simultaneously reflects the strengthening of legal sanctions against internet copyright infringement and suggests that the standard on which copyright infringement compensation is judged lacks rationality in China.

Litigation Against Defective Nikon D600 Cameras

Posted on March 17, 2014 by yytbest

(By You Yunting) On March 15, 2014, China CCTV exposed the quality problems of the Nikon D600 SLR Camera – it frequently produces black spots on photographs. In today’s post, we will introduce analysis about what legal problems might be encountered in litigation.

China Laws and Regulations Update in March 2014

Posted on March 10, 2014 by yytbest

1. The State Council has begun circulating the “Registered Capital Registration System Reform Plan”

On February 7^th, 2014 the State Council issued the Registered Capital Registration System Reform Plan (the “Plan”) with the purpose of promoting the development and efficiency of business registration systems.

The Plan makes it clear that requirements for registered capital of companies applying to be incorporated will be lowered. However, minimum registered capital restrictions could remain applicable to companies in given industries subject to relevant laws, administrative rules and decisions made by the State Council. The new guidelines stipulate that the minimum registered capital restrictions of RMB 30,000 on limited companies, RMB 100,000 on solely- owned limited companies and RMB 5,000,000 on stock-limited companies will generally be lifted. Additionally, restrictions on the proportion of registered capital that is initially subscribed by all shareholders (or initiators) upon incorporation of a company as well as the proportion of registered capital subscribed in cash by all shareholders (or initiators) to the total registered capital of a company will be lifted. The duration of existence for a company with registered capital not fully paid by its shareholders (or initiators) will also no longer be limited.

China Customs Requires that Patent Holders Update their Valid Certificates

Posted on March 3, 2014 by yytbest

(By You Yunting) We have already introduced today’s topic in our previous post how to record patents with China Customs. For more background information, please read this article first. Recently the Chinese General Administration of Customs has updated its previous recordation system for intellectual property rights enforcement and began to utilize this latest recording system from March 1, 2014. This updated recording system puts forward a new requirement that upon patent recordation, the right holder of a patent that has been recorded by Customs must present valid documents of the relevant patent rights before the given deadline, otherwise the patent recordation will be canceled.

China Supreme Court legalizes Part of Corporate Lending

Posted on February 28, 2014 by yytbest

(By You Yunting) China’s financial system is restricted regulated. Private corporate lending contracts, whereby an enterprise without qualified financial credit lends money to another enterprise is considered to be invalid, and China’s courts would order the lenders return the original amount of money without any interest. Recently, the President of Supreme People’s Court Xi Xiaoming delivered a speech at the National Civil and Commercial Adjudication Work Conference, indicating that the courts have recently begun to expand the validity of corporate lending and are attempting to legalize corporate lending contracts.

Lessons to Be Learned from Apple Losing Their Apple Trademark for a Game Console in China

Posted on February 26, 2014 by yytbest

(By You Yunting) In the end of 2013, the Beijing Higher People’s Court rejected Apple Inc.’s trademark opposition towards “苹果” trademark (read “Pingguo” in Chinese and referring to “Apple” in English) under Class 28 for game console against Zhongshan Readboy Electronics Co., Ltd. Thereafter, Apple Inc. has gone through 4 procedures, including the Trademark Office’s opposition proceeding, TRAB’s review procedure and two administrative actions and ultimately lost the “苹果” trademark under Class 28 for game console. The following are abstracts from the judgment of the final trial and our comments.

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