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Trademark squatting has been a common occurrence in China for many years, and even been a kind of “business” by trademark squatters, which has caused huge troubles to brand owners. It is not the case, as ordinary people might think, that all types of trademark squatting can be regulated by the explicit provisions of existing laws, otherwise the phenomenon would not be so difficult to eradicate.
Continue Reading A new ground to defend bad faith trademark registration – CNIPA rules that new trademark application should reasonably yield to prior trademark right if the applicant has full awareness of other’s prior trademark

Recently, Guangzhou IP Court ruled on its first trademark infringement and unfair competition case regarding parallel import, in which it found such acts should neither constitute trademark infringement nor unfair competition.
Continue Reading First Trademark Infringement and Unfair Competition Case regarding Parallel Import Concluded by Guangzhou IP Court

On April 21, 2020, Beijing Higher People’s Court released the Guidelines on Determination of Damages and Statutory Damages in Disputes over Intellectual Property and Unfair Competition (the “Guidelines”). It provides detailed guidelines on methods of damages calculation, punitive damages, recovery of attorney fees, evidence rules on defendant’s failure of producing evidence, and statutory damages. While the Guidelines have binding force among all the courts in Beijing, but it mirrors many existing practices across the country and is actually a secondary authority for all People’s courts. This note serves as an overview of those provisions related to trademark and passing off in the Guidelines followed by our comments and recommendations.
Continue Reading Guidelines on Damages Calculation in IP Disputes

This case covers the typical arguments which arise in SPA disputes in circumstances where a target does not perform as well as expected.  In March 2019, the UK’s High Court handed down its judgment on, amongst others, three key areas which corporate lawyers, buyers and sellers should be mindful of, being:…
Continue Reading Share purchase agreements: Lessons for Seller

On May 9, 2020 the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (the “CBIRC”) published the Interim Measures on the Administration of the Online Lending of Commercial Banks (Consultation Paper) (the “Consultation Paper”) on its website, soliciting comments from the public officially.  As the Interim Measures on the Administration of the Online Lending of Commercial Banks is an important regulation to be promulgated, which, among others, is indicated in the legislative plan of the CBIRC in 2020, the release of the Consultation Paper would accelerate the promulgation and implementation thereof.
Continue Reading Consultation Paper Issued to Regulate the Commercial Banks’ Online Lending Business

Company decision-making was under the spotlight in December 2019, when the UK’s Court of Appeal was asked to consider the “Duomatic principle” (taken from the 1969 case Duomatic Ltd, Re [1969] 2 Ch. 365) which gave credence to informal shareholder approvals in certain circumstances.
Continue Reading Don’t forget about the trustee body seeking to rely on informal shareholder approvals

Over the course of 2019, the Courts of England and Wales heard several cases which explored the circumstances in which the Courts are willing to imply terms into contracts. We have considered two such cases, Wells v Devani and Lehman Brothers International (Europe) (In Administration) v Exotix Partners LLP and set out our observations below.
Continue Reading Which came first, the binding contract or the implied term?

On 21 April 2020, The Supreme People’s Court of the P.R.C. released Top 10 IP cases and 50 typical IP cases. We summarized the 5 trademark cases out of the top 10 cases below which respectively involve OEM,  invalidation based on adverse effect, punitive compensation,  protection of well-known trademarks, and application of “three-in-one” intellectual property adjudication system.
Continue Reading 2019 Top10 IP Typical Cases Released by the Supreme People’s Court of the P.R.C. – Trademark cases