Why Ctrip’s Opponent Failed in Charging Its Advertisement’s Unfair Competition?

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Abstract

(By Albert Chen) For the company operation in China, whether its slogan would constitute the unfair competition, it shall first judge whether the parties involved are conducting the same or similar industries. After that, it shall verify whether the defendant has conducted the accused propaganda. The last and also is the most important, it shall confirm whether the prohibitive words or phrases have been adopted in the slogan, or whether its description has appeared to be exaggerated or not the truth, and the fit with the fact shall also be judged.

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Could User Information Be Considered Trade Secret in China?

Abstract: trade secret must have three basic features: confidentiality, practicability, and security. Therefore, whether user information in a website could be considered as trade secret or not, it shall also be judged based on these three basic features.

(By Luo Yanjie) To a website, its’ user information is very important to its daily operation. To judge it from the legal protection perspective, it is generally protected as a trade secret. The case introduced in this article is a typical dispute on whether the user information could be considered a trade secret, and thereby could infringement be decided.

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Would Tencent Take the Copyright of Contents Published by Users on WeChat?

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(By You Yunting) Recently, a news report titled “My WeChat, But Not My Copyright?” (note: the article is in Chinese) has raised wide suspicion over the copyright of the messages posted on WeChat, a LBS messaging software by Tencent. The reporter checked the User Agreement of Tencent and interviewed a representative from the company. Unfortunately, ultimately the reporter was still unable to reach a conclusion  on the copyright ownership for messages posted on WeChat.

The author also examined the User Agreement of Tencent’s WeChat, and verified the dou
bt of the reporter. With regards to the copyright ownership of the content published by the user, Tencent’s User Agreement included very little information  and does not answer the question. As regulated in Article 11.1 of Tencent Service Agreement and Article 9.1 of Tencent Public Platform Service Agreement:

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Can Software User Interface be Protected by China Copyright Law?

Abstract

(By Albert Chen) User Interfaces (UI) are generally excluded from copyright protection, because a UI simply allows the software to be used by displaying various methods of operation; that being said, because UIs are all essentially limited by incorporating similar functions, similar kinds of software inevitably reach creative limits in expression of UI layouts and specification of features and functions. Looking at UIs in another way, the basic UI layout and framework essentially enter the public domain, and ergo are not afforded protection under the Copyright Law.

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Would Those First Users Involved in OEM Constitute Trademark Infringement?

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(By Albert Chen) The author once introduced readers to different judicial opinions adopted in the Shanghai and Guangzhou courts over whether trademark infringement could be caused by an OEM. According to a ruling handed down by the Fujian Higher People’s Court in 2012, which came to the attention of the author recently, the judge confirmed that an OEM could lead to trademark infringement, but at the same time, the court also decided that no liability shall be taken by the first user of the mark, for no confusion would be made. As for that point, the author certainly has a different opinion.

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Is Apple Breaching China’s Foreign Exchange Management Rules in the App Store?

(By You Yunting) In November of 2011, Apple Inc. began allowing its users in China to purchase app by RMB. At the time, the author believed that it means Apple would operate its AppStore in China. Yet unill now, the business concerning AppStore of Apple is still run by iTunes S.A.R.L.(the “iTunes”), the company registered in Luxembourg, a subsidiary of Apple Inc. Furthermore, according to the relevant International convention on transnational transaction, neither Apple nor iTunes is required to pay taxes for Chinese user’s purchase of the apps to the Chinese government. For Apple and iTunes, on one hand they take the payment in RMB, but on the other hand, they do not pay the taxes. This business model is achieved through the third party payment method. In this situation, the third party payment service provider would collect the payment from the Chinese users, and then transfer them to overseas. But this business model is at risk of violating the foreign currency control regulations of China. The following are the opinions of the author on this issue.

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Does 360’ s QQ Guard Constitute Unfair Competition against Tencent? Part II

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 (By Luo Yanjie) Today, we would give our opinions on 360’s unfair competition ruling.

Lawyer’s Comments:

The case is a part of the “3Q battle”, and has garnered wide attention in the society. Both parties in the case have submitted large amounts of evidences to support their claims. As showed in the judgment, the case seems to be very complicated. Moreover, because 360 provided the service for free, 360’s lose in the case has gained the sympathy of Internet users. However, from a legal standpoint, this case is not difficult. The ruling against 360 was proper for the following reasons:

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Does 360’ s QQ Guard Constitute Unfair Competition against Tencent? Part I

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(By Luo Yanjie) Abstract: Although online ads or pop-up ads may make you feel uncomfortable, that is a profit model utilized by free software like Tencent’s QQ, the popular online messaging software. But, when the 360 Guard software removed QQ’s ads, despite that being deemed reasonable in the eyes of some netizens, it would no doubt damage Tencent’s legal rights as QQ’s developer and operator. The author believes that it was proper for the court to determine that 360 had engaged in unfair competition practices. Today we’d like to introduce a bit about this case to our readers, beginning with today’s post and extending into tomorrow’s.  

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Whether using the Name of Another’s Work Constitutes Copyright Infringement or Unfair Competition

Abstract: The Copyright Law and the Anti Unfair Competition Law supplement each other, but they also compete with each other. In the case introduced in this article, the first instance court denied the copyright infringement claim, but confirmed liability under the principles of unfair competition. This seems to be logically contradictory, and the court in the second instance corrected this glaring mistake.

(By Luo Yanjie Unfair competition refers to an operator’s misconduct that violates principles of fairness, justice, and good faith; it is also considered any behavior that violates widely adopted commercial ethics. As for copyright, as a kind of exclusive right, it mainly focuses on granting the right holder a monopolistic right in conformance with the law, and thereby grants the right holder monopoly rights as well as a competitive advantage through the exploitation of his/her own intellectual works. In this particular aspect, it shares a similar purpose with the Anti Unfair Competition Law. For this reason, the Copyright Law and the Anti Unfair Competition Law supplement each other, yet on the other hand they also compete with each other.

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China Supreme Court Publishes New Judicial Interpretation on Competitive Restriction Clauses

(By Albert Chen) The system of competitive restriction is one of the major systems concerning the protection of trade secrets. In the beginning of 2013, the Supreme People’s Court of China (the “Supreme Court”) published its Interpretation IV on Several Issues concerning the Application of Law in Hearing Labor Disputes (the “Interpretation IV”). According to the new Interpretation, the rules related to the labor issue include: 1) a competitive restriction clause is valid when no article has been made regarding payment for the restriction; 2) removal of competitive competition due to delayed payment for the restriction compensation; 3) the employee may claim extra compensation when an employer terminates the restriction.

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Why No Solution to “Box Office Stealing” under the Current Laws in China?

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(By You Yunting) Abstract: the author was interviewed: is “box office stealing” mainly a result of a defect in GAPP’s legislature (the General Administration of Press and Publication) and SARFT (State Administration of Radio, Film and Television)? For this issue, the author’s opinion is that the administration and governance over the film industry is the real reason this problem arises, because there is really no way this would happen otherwise, and its unlikely those right holders would try to protect their rights, making the aggressive parties even more aggressive. Thus we would only see the bad drives out the good.

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Can “屌丝” Serve as a Trademark or Online Game Name in China?

(By You Yunting) Recently, Mr. Shi Yuzhu, the senior executive of Giant Inc. has once again entered the flurry of public opinion. The main reason is that he claimed on his Weibo that the company has applied for 屌丝 as a trademark, and he also joked that anyone using the term must pay the company one yuan. (屌丝 (diaosi) means pubic hair in Chinese, but it has been used on the internet to popularly refer to losers). Curious about Mr. Shi’s words, the author checked the Trademark Office’s database for the application for 屌丝 in classes concerning online games. Perhaps because the application was filed recently, there is no indication of Giant Inc.’s application in the database. But, the author also found that Giant’s opponent, Suzhou Woniu Company, has applied for the trademark 屌丝侠 in Classes 9, 38, 41, and 42 on May of 2012, and all of these application are related to online games.

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Can Genes Be Patented?

(by George Wu) About two weeks ago on April 15, 2013, the Supreme Court of the United States heard oral arguments concerning the matter of patenting of genes.  Myriad Genetics and the University of Utah are the owners of several patents related to the isolated human BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes.  Particular sequences of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes predispose women to early-onset of breast cancer and ovarian cancer.  The American Civil Liberty Union (ACLU) and several other parties are challenging the validity of these patents.

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China’s Latest Laws and Regulations in April 2013

I. The Supreme People’s Court and Local People’s Courts Successively Released White Books on Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property in 2012 and Model Cases.

On April 22, before World Intellectual Property Day, the Supreme People’s Court released the White Book on Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property By Chinese Courts in 2012 (the ”White Book”) and Model Cases embodying new Issues related to intellectual property protection.

Afterwards, the local people’s courts successively released local white books on local intellectual property protection and local model cases. On April 25, the Shanghai High People’s Court held a press conference and released the White Book of the Shanghai People’s Court on Intellectual Property Adjudication in 2012 and Ten Key Cases.

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What do the First Valuation Adjustment Mechanism (VAM) Lawsuits in China Tell Us?

Analysis on the HF Fund’s lawsuits against Gansu Shiheng and Hong Kong Dia

(By Bai Lituan & Zhang Qianlin) In December 2012, HF Fund Management Co., Ltd. (the “HFF”) filed a lawsuit against Gansu Shiheng Nonferrous Metals Co., Ltd (the “GSNM”), and after being heard by the Supreme People’s Court, the Court stated that the valuation adjustment Mechanism (VAM) would be considered partially valid. This particular case has been seen ups and downs, and now that it has finally been heard, we would like to share our opinions on it within a framework of legal analysis, and hope that it will help clarify any issues presented in the case and thus help to reduce the risks investors typically face.

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