Are There Any Differences between WPS and Apple in Scanning Users’ Cloud Data?

(By You Yunting and Wang Ting) According to media reports[1] , the office software WPS recently got involved in a privacy case where one of its users alleged that WPS blocked his local and cloud files without any reasons and caused him unable to use them with the system showing that “they may contain something prohibited and are no longer accessible”. WPS replied that actually, it is the shared link of certain online files that is suspected of violating rules and WPS correspondingly invalidated the access to such link pursuant to laws. However, WPS was still criticized for its scanning users’ data.

READ MORE

Does the Acquisition and Use of User Information Constitute Unfair Competition?

(By Gao Tianyi and You Yunting) Data buyers often focus on several potential legal concerns in web-scraped data, particularly relating to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) in the United States. But a recent case in China between Weibo and Maimai demonstrates that even where the CFAA does not apply and vendors are using an Open API, risks may still exist if the buyers fail to acquire and use data appropriately.

Weibo is one of China’s largest social media platforms and has over 530 million monthly active users, according to China Internet Watch. Maimai is a China-based professional social-networking platform, which was initially modelled on LinkedIn. In July 2019, Maimai had 25 million monthly active users.

READ MORE

China Laws and Regulations Update in August 2019

1.Land Administration Law of the People’s Republic of China

Promulgated by the National People’s Congress

Document Number: No.32 President Order

Promulgation date: 26 August 2019

Implementation date: 1 January 2019

The amendments to the Land Law lifts the legal restriction on collective commercial construction land into the market. Collective rural construction land can be transferred, leased or given in other way to and directly used by organizations or individuals other than a collective rural economic organization after being permitted by the plan, legally registered and approved more than two thirds of members of the collective economic organization. The users can subtransfer the land in their possession by transfer, swap and pledge. (Source: Website of the National People’s Congress)

READ MORE

What Chinese Intellectual Property Legal Issues Are American Companies Dissatisfied With?

Day three of the visit to the United States

(By You Yunting) Beginning at the end of this March, on the invitation of the US government, I visited America with the goal of understanding its IPR system. On my third day in the US, I visited the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (“PhRMA”), the United States-China Business Council (“USCBC”), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (“USPTO”), and the East Asia Bureau of the US Department of State. The following is the brief record of my meetings on that day.

READ MORE

Legal Risk of Unlicensed User Data Disclosure by Internet Companies

By Albert Chen

It has been a chronic social problem that personal information could be released with no license, and that has brought widely seen information harassment, also a threat to the security of personal asset. The Economic Investigation Squad of Shanghai Police Department published a case in recent, in which the crime of illegally selling personal information has been investigated, and there involved more than 200 million pieces of information and thousands of corporate information. In an era of information, the Internet companies have a wide command of personal data compared with normal companies. Therefore, through today’s post, we would like to express our opinions on the risk and risk prevention of the information leakage.

READ MORE