China Law Insight : China Law Insight: China Commercial and Intellectual Property Lawyers and Attorneys, Full Service Law Firm: King & Wood

By He Wei and Zeng Ying King & Wood's Dispute Resolution Group

Mediation in China can be divided into three categories: mediation supervised by the people's court, mediation supervised by an arbitral tribunal and mediation without the supervision of a court or arbitral tribunal. The first two categories of mediation share many similarities. Both of them are conducted by particular institutions in accordance with statutory proceedings, and the settlement agreements reached have the same binding force as judicial judgments. These two categories of mediation, because of their "quasi-judicial" nature, are usually collectively referred to as "judicial mediation". Usually such bodies are decision making—and a mediation must give only the parties control over decisions.

Besides judicial mediation there are many other forms of mediation, which also help resolve disputes and lift the heavy caseload of the courts and arbitration institutions. These forms of mediation can be collectively described as "extra-judicial mediation". Extra-judicial mediation, which provides parties with more alternative dispute resolution mechanisms, plays a very important role in today's fast-growing economy.

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作者：何薇、曾颖 金杜律师事务所争议解决组

我国目前的调解制度主要包括法院调解、仲裁调解、以及法院和仲裁调解之外的其他调解。法院调解与仲裁调解有很多共同之处，他们均依托于规范的机构和严格的程序，其调解协议具有充分的法律效力，加之仲裁在一定程度上具有“准司法”的性质，两者往往可以合称为“司法体系下的调解”。与之相对，法院和仲裁程序之外还存在着很多其他形式的调解，有效解决了大量的纠纷，大大减轻了诉讼和仲裁的压力，可以统称为“非司法体系下的调解”。非司法体系下的调解在利益多元化的今天提供了多元化的纠纷解决机制，在社会生活中发挥了非常重要的作用。

非司法体系下的调解制度在我国由来已久，并且在实践中被广泛应用。它既包括在专门调解机构的主持下进行的调解，也包括没有调解机构参与的调解。处理的争议既可以是民事的，商事的，也可以是行政的。非司法体系下的调解包括以下几大特征：第一，自愿性。当事人将自己的争议交由自己选择的第三方处理，而且纠纷的范围和内容均是当事人可以自行处分的。调解员必须始终尊重当事人的意志，不得有任何的勉强和强迫。第二， 独立性。非司法体系下的调解独立存在，不附属于任何其他程序。第三，调解的结果没有强制执行力。第四，调解的结果不影响当事人以其他公力救济的方式寻求争端解决。

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By King & Wood's Foreign Investment Group

On October 12, 2011, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) promulgated the Circular on Issues Relating to RMB Cross Border Direct Investment dated (the "Circular"). The Circular provides that outbound investors (including investors of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan) can make direct investment with RMB funds they obtained legally outbound (the "Offshore RMB").

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作者：金杜律师事务所外商投资部

2011 年10 月12 日，商务部正式颁布了《商务部关于跨境人民币直接投资有关问题通知》（ “《通知》”）。《通知》规定，境外投资者（含港澳台投资者）可以合法获得的境外人民币依法开展直接投资活动。

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By Susan Ning and Huang Jing

On 7 September 2011, the Shanxi Combined Transportation Group Company (SCTG) filed an administrative law suit with the Taiyuan Xinghualing District People's Court against the Taiyuan Bureau of Railways (the "SCTG Case"). On 15 September 2011, the Taiyuan Xinghualing District People's Court accepted the SCTG Case.

SCTG alleged that it had submitted two applications to the Taiyuan Bureau of Railways for establishing new railway ticket agent stores on 25 January 2011; but Taiyuan Bureau of Railways did not respond to such applications.  According to SCTG, Taiyuan Bureau of Railways' conduct was a violation of the Anti-monopoly Law (AML), and constituted administrative omission.   Thus SCTG filed the administrative lawsuit.

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By Susan Ning, Liu Jia, Sun Yi Ming and Yin  Ranran

In early November, Taobao Mall (Tmall), part of the e-commerce operations of Alibaba Group and considered as China's biggest business-to-consumer (B2C) retail platform, suffered from a stormy protest from small vendors against its new rules.  Meanwhile, antitrust concerns arise in relation to its suspected abuse of dominance in the e-commerce industry.

This article provides an overview of the whole incident, outlines details to do with Tmall' s conduct and examines whether such conduct could be considered as an abuse of dominance in violation of the Anti-monopoly Law of China (AML).

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By King & Wood Intellectual Property Group

Liu Zhaolong, a Chinese national, was found to have purchased raw wine, bottles, bottle caps, labels, bottle capping equipment and other illegal materials and tools, and manufactured counterfeit wines imitating Chivas, Remy Martin, Ballantine's, Jack Daniels, Martell, Hennessy, Royal Salute and other famous wine brands. Liu filled the counterfeit wines and distributed them to several cities in China, the illegal turnover of which has been over RMB 200,000 (around US$31,250). As a result, Beijing Daxing District Court found that Liu Zhaolong had violated the provisions of Article 213 of the Criminal Law of China and committed the crime of counterfeiting a registered trademark.

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金杜律师事务所知识产权组

因未经注册商标权人许可，自行购买原料酒、酒瓶、酒盖、标签、封盖机等原料和犯罪工具，通过灌装方式假冒芝华士、人头马、百龄坛、杰克丹尼、马爹利、轩尼诗、皇家礼炮等著名洋酒，销往全国数个城市，非法经营额达到20余万元，刘兆龙被北京市大兴区人民法院认定触犯中国《刑法》第213条，构成假冒注册商标罪。

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By King & Wood's Intellectual Property Group

Pursuant to the judicial interpretations enacted by the Supreme People's Court of China in February 2008, if a prior registered trademark owner files an infringement lawsuit against the use of a latter registered trademark, courts will refuse to accept the case. The prior trademark registrant must first initiate a trademark dispute action with the China Trademark Review and Adjudication Board (TRAB) to invalidate the latter registered trademark. The are various reasons that may prevent the latter registered trademark from being invalidated within a short period of time, making it difficult for the prior registrant to prevent continued infringement by the latter mark in a timely manner.

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金杜律师事务所知识产权组

根据中国大陆最高人民法院于2008年2月作出的生效司法解释，依据在先注册商标对在后注册商标的使用提起商标侵权诉讼的，法院不予受理，在先权利人应首先向商标评审委员会请求撤销在后申请的注册商标。这种情况导致权利人在基于各种原因无法及时撤销在后注册的侵权商标的情况下，很难制止其使用。

但是，如果在侵权注册商标的申请日之前，权利人对相同、近似商标享有其他种类的在先民事权利，比如，著作权、企业字号权、肖像权、姓名权、外观设计专利权等，权利人可依据该在先权利对侵权注册商标的使用直接提出侵权之诉，同样可达到制止后者使用的目的。

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By Xu Ping  King & Wood's Foreign Direct Investment Group

The variable interest entity ("VIE") has long been a popular structure for foreign parties to invest in sectors which are restricted by China's industrial policy to foreign investment. In addition the VIE structure has also been used as a means by which Chinese domestic entities could list offshore on international capital markets.

The first well known VIE structure was that of Sina.com in its 2000 listing on NASDAQ. Indeed the VIE structure is also commonly known as a "Sina Structure". Sina used the VIE as a workaround structure to avoid restrictions on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the value-added telecom services sector. Since then, both foreign and Chinese investors alike have replicated the VIE structure in many other sectors of China's economy where FDI is either restricted or prohibited to foreign investors.

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by Yang Hua  Connie Zhuang     King & Wood's Intellectual Property  Group

On September 2, 2011, the Legislative Affairs Office of China's State Council released a circular seeking public comments on proposed revisions to the Trademark Law of the People's Republic of China (the "Draft Revisions").

The most notable amendments in the Draft Revisions are provisions aimed at preventing bad faith filings and changes to the trademark opposition procedures.

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金杜律师事务所知识产权组

2011年9月2日，《中华人民共和国商标法》（修订草案征求意见稿，“修订草案”）已由国务院法制办公室向社会公布，公开征求意见。

“修订草案”中最为瞩目的修改内容包括制止恶意抢注方面的规定以及商标异议程序的变化。

“修订草案”规定，如商标申请人与权利人因存在合同、业务往来、地域关系或其他关系而知晓权利人在中国大陆在先使用的商标却恶意申请，即使权利人的商标在中国大陆尚未因足够的使用已产生一定影响，也可能得到保护；而且，如权利人的商标显著性较强且具有一定影响，可阻止他人在非类似商品上抢注与之容易导致混淆的商标。前述规定对制止当前较为猖獗的违反诚实信用原则的恶意申请具有一定的作用，但尚不能完全解决所有问题。

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by King and Wood's Finance Group

Further to Circular No. 145, on 14 October 2011 PBOC released new rules on RMB FDI, the Measures on Administration of the RMB Settlement in relation to Foreign Direct Investment ("PBOC Rules") to roll out PBOC's detailed management system.  The PBOC Rules cover all the FDI aspects denominated in RMB, including capital injection, payment of purchase price in the acquisition of PRC companies, repatriation of dividends and distribution as well as RMB denominated cross-border loans.  The PBOC Rules adopt similar methodology applied by SAFE to foreign currency FDI but appear to be more friendly.  On the same day, MOFCOM also issued a circular ("MOFCOM Circular") to clarify certain issues in relation to cross-border RMB FDI transactions.
We highlight the following aspects we deem of significance:

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金杜律师事务所 融资组

继银发(2011)145号文之后, 2011年10月14日中国人民银行就人民币外商直接投资出台新规则《外商直接投资人民币结算业务管理办法》(“人行办法”), 规定了有关人民币结算的具体操作。 人行办法涉及到以人民币进行外商直接投资的方方面面, 包括资本注入、并购中国企业购买价款的支付、股息和利润分配的汇出以及人民币跨境贷款。  人行办法延续了外管局对外汇直接投资的监管思路, 但程序更为简便。 同一天, 商务部也出台通知(“商务部通知”)规定了跨境人民币直接投资交易的相关问题。

我们认为比较重要的方面包括:

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By King & Wood's Intellectual Property Group

China’s State Intellectual Property Office (SIPO) is able to issue compulsory patent licenses where an entity or individual who is otherwise qualified to exploit a patent does not succeed in obtaining a license on  reasonable terms and within a reasonable period from the patent holder. The new Patent Law of the PRC (the “Patent Law”) and the Implementing Rules of the Patent Law of the PRC (the “Implementing Rules”) both contain provisions regarding the compulsory licensing of patents. On October 12, 2011, the SIPO issued a circular to solicit public comments on the Amendments to the Measures on Compulsory Patent Licensing (Draft for Comments) (the “Draft Amendments”). The SIPO will be taking comments until November 13, 2011.

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By King & Wood's Finance Group

After seeking public comments in a wide range and holding several times discussions with bankers and lawyers, on 9th October 2011 CBRC promulgated the Rules on the Distribution of the Wealth Management Products of the Commercial Banks ("CBRC Rules"). The CBRC Rules maintains major content of the Interim Rules on the Commercial Bank's Wealth Management Business to the Individuals and the Guidelines on Risk Management on the Commercial Bank's Wealth Management Business to the Individuals in 2005, at the same time, CBRC Rules provides new requirements in key fields. In the current banking market, the funds is seriously short, and the interest rates for the deposit are very low and the means of investment are very limited, therefore, banks and their clients will pay much more attention to the sales of the wealth management products.

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金杜律师事务所知识产权组

在中国，具备实施条件的单位或个人不能以合理条件或在合理期限内取得专利权人许可的情况下，国家知识产权局可以对该专利实施强制许可。中国专利法和专利法实施细则都规定了专利强制许可。国家知识产权局于2011年10月12日发布通知，就《专利实施强制许可办法修订草案（征求意见稿）》（办法草案）于11月13日前向社会各界征求反馈。

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金杜律师事务所 融资组

2011年10月9日，经过广泛征求意见和多次的讨论，中国银行业监督管理委员会颁布了《商业银行理财产品销售管理办法》(简称"销售管理办法")。销售管理办法在很多方面保留了银监会之前于2005年发布的《商业银行个人理财业务管理暂行办法》和《商业银行个人理财业务风险管理指引》的内容，同时，也在一些很重要的领域提出了新的要求。在目前的资金市场面临较大短缺和存款收益较低、投资渠道不足的情况下，商业银行的理财产品销售会是银行和客户都很关注的一项业务，因此，销售管理办法的出台需要引起商业银行的重视和仔细研究，需要银行作出具体的方案，调整业务的模式和程序，以避免发生合规和其他风险。

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金杜律师事务所破产、重组和清算组

司法实践中，在债务人破产（包括破产清算、重整与和解，下同）程序中，管理人常常会遇到债权人的债权人向相关法院提出申请，要求执行债权人在债务人破产程序中可获得的分配权益。具体的做法是：

债务人破产程序中，在受理破产案件的法院裁定确认各家债权人的债权之后，债权人的债权人申请法院（该法院不一定是受理破产案件的法院），对债权人在债务人破产程序中可受偿的权益予以执行；受理执行案件的法院则根据债权人的债权人之申请，出具民事裁定书，向债务人破产程序中的管理人发出协助执行通知，要求冻结债权人在债务人破产程序中的可分配权益，并要求管理人在对债权人进行分配时，将应当分配给债权人的资产的全部或者一部分，直接支付给提出执行申请的债权人的债权人，或是直接支付至受理执行案件的法院，再由受理执行案件的法院转给提出申请的债权人的债权人。

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By Zhang Shouzhi Li Xiang and Zhang Mei King and Wood's International Trade  Group

As the third-largest trading nation in the world, China's import and export volume increases significantly year by year, among which, certain percentage of transactions relates to import and export of large-sized complete set equipment. Compared with common commodity trading, large-sized complete set equipment trading are much more complicated, involving commercial, technical, legal and financial issues relating to not only commodity trade but also intellectual property protection and services. In addition, large-sized complete set equipment are normally expensive amounting to tens and even hundreds of millions of dollars and such equipment can be crucial for the production and business operation of an enterprise. Thus, any disputes if not resolved successfully may lead serious consequences.

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作者：张守志 张梅 李响 金杜律师事务所国际贸易组

作为世界第三大贸易国家，随着经济的发展和技术的进步，中国的进出口额逐年大幅增加。其中，大型成套设备进出口占了相当比重。与一般国际货物贸易相比，大型成套设备贸易集货物贸易、知识产权及服务贸易于一体，商务、技术、法律、金融问题互相交织，其复杂性格外突出。加之大型成套设备往往价格昂贵，动辄就以千万美元甚至上亿美元计，对企业的正常生产经营活动至关重要。因此，大型成套设备买卖一旦发生纠纷，不仅法律难点多，而且如果不能妥善解决，后果也将十分严重，故此应当格外予以重视。

结合大型成套设备买卖通常易发生的法律纠纷，重点应关注以下几方面：

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By King & Wood's Trademark  Practice

Trademarks should be registered wherever the products that carry those trademarks go. This has become a motto for exporters in Yixing. According to preliminary statistics conducted by local authorities, over 200 trademarks have been registered abroad, and the number of such trademark owners increase from 10 to more than 20 in Yixing.

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金杜律师事务所破产、重组和清算组

中国证监会于2011年1月发布了5个并购重组法律适用意见，内容包括上市公司严重财务困难认定、要约豁免申请条款选用、二级市场收购的完成时点、拟购买资产存在资金占用问题、上市公司在12个月内连续购买、出售同一或者相关资产的有关比例计算等。

中国证监会有关部门负责人表示，这些法律适用意见就市场参与主体对《上市公司收购管理办法》、《上市公司重大资产重组管理办法》有关法律理解上可能存在不一致的问题加以明确，并以证监会公告的形式对外发布，体现其严肃性和法律效力。

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