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International Law

China Hearsay

Commentary and analysis of law and business in China.
By Stan Abrams

Post Frequency: 8.4/day

Last Entry: May 03, 2010 at 11:04:24

Buy Local

Posted on February 16, 2009
This will be short and sweet, or at least short. (Note that all of my stuff today relates in some way to the global meltdown, so if you are prone to depression, take a pass on China Hearsay today and tune in again tomorrow for the exciting wrap-up of my series on the WTO IP [...

US-China WTO Dispute III - criminal thresholds

Posted on February 13, 2009
OK, so we’ve already taken a look at a copyright claim (ruling: insignificant victory for US) and a customs measure (ruling: hollow victory for US). The last one relates to the criminal law as applied to trademark and copyright infringement. This one doesn’t really come out much better for the US either in my opinion, [...

CSRC, CBRC Not Going to Like This

Posted on February 11, 2009
The latest in virtual fun: Shanghai-based online game company Giant Interactive (NYSE:GA) released a "stock trading" platform for gamers of its in-house developed 2.5D MMORPG Giant Online to trade virtual coins in January. Transactions, including exchanging gold for silver coins, will be charged 2% commission...

What?s New on the Labor Front

Posted on February 11, 2009
If you are a foreign company mulling over a series of layoffs, be very careful. The government is not going to be too happy about that, although in most places, they will not outright deny your ability to order layoffs. Here’s the latest, which is not so much news (from a substantive point of view), but [...

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U.S.-China WTO Dispute II - customs issue

Posted on February 10, 2009
I’ve been putting off this post, mostly because the first one (on copyright) was so lengthy, and also my schedule has not been kind lately. I will try to keep this post concise and chock full o’ quotes, saving my strength for a bit of commentary...

No Comment, Really

Posted on February 10, 2009
Big story today is the CCTV hotel building fire. Internets are full of chatter, Twitter is humming, and the entire staff of DLA Piper Beijing congregated in four offices this morning (across from my office) to take in the view. (We are at the Kerry Centre, just across the street from the CCTV complex...

Rule of Law, I Hardly Recognized You Anymore

Posted on February 09, 2009
Hard to believe this is coming from a sitting U.S. President, but I guess sometimes things do change: President Obama signaled yesterday that he would seek to remove the controversial "buy American" clause from the Democrats $900 billion stimulus bill...

Better than Working at Wal-mart

Posted on February 09, 2009
Can’t help but be amused at this heartwarming tale I saw on Danwei a few days ago that has been making the Net rounds: Today’s Beijing Times reported on a fraud case which Involves a 99-year-old man named Zhou Zhiping who is charged with fleecing the victim, a Mr Chen, of 749,000 yuan...

Anecdotal Evidence

Posted on February 09, 2009
Last week’s blogging fell off a cliff due to work-related demands. Such is life. Hoping to get to Part II of my write-up on the WTO IP decision — look for that tomorrow if I can get my ass out of the office at a reasonable hour tonight. On a less esoteric topic, the economy is [...

Life During the Recession

Posted on February 04, 2009
For those of you in precarious employment positions, here’s a delightful quote to keep you sane: WESTLEY: Finally, Roberts decided something. He said, "All right, Westley, I’ve never had a valet. You can try it for tonight. I’ll most likely kill you in the morning...

U.S.-China WTO Case I ? copyright claim

Posted on February 04, 2009
I’ve been wading through this case over the last couple of days (difficult to do in the evening when you’re still struggling with jet lag). I am writing up a summary for work, but I thought that a few blog entries might help to clarify my thoughts...

Relocating to China?

Posted on February 04, 2009
From CLB: Got a somewhat weird email today, but it makes sense, on some level, so here goes: Dear Mr. Harris: A question you may want to answer on your blog: If you were 25 again — crisp J.D. in hand but, alas, no job — which city in China would you move [...

Shoe Commentary

Posted on February 03, 2009
The big news is about shoes: A protester threw an athletic shoe at the Chinese prime minister, Wen Jiabao, during his speech at Cambridge University’s concert hall on Monday, seven weeks after a similar incident involving President Bush in Iraq...

More Opinions on Obama and China

Posted on February 03, 2009
I have about 15 articles on this topic in my Inbox, but I’ll start with this one today since it is "fresh". This column was in the IHT and begins with the following: In contrast to the general rush in most parts of the world to congratulate Barack Obama and hail a new era of American [...

Another US-China Diplomatic Layer?

Posted on February 02, 2009
Still going through my Inbox from the holiday (238 articles flagged so far for later reading!), but this is worth a quick post: The administration of U.S. President Barack Obama has decided to launch a new comprehensive strategic dialogue with China that includes high-level discussions on political, economic and security issues, it was learned Sunday...

Spring Festival Deep Thought

Posted on February 01, 2009
The greeting that is making the rounds these days — "Happy Niu Year" — makes me believe in true evil and could force me to turn to religion for the answers I now so desperately need. [FYI: I'm back in town after a couple weeks. Will start posting again after I get caught up...

In Praise of Sweatshops

Posted on January 16, 2009
OK, one substantive post before I take off for the weekend. Nick Kristof at the Times wrote a good one this week. Here’s the basic argument: Mr. Obama and the Democrats who favor labor standards in trade agreements mean well, for they intend to fight back at oppressive sweatshops abroad...

Last Post of the Week on Porn

Posted on January 16, 2009
I know, way too much on the topic of the government’s anti-online porn campaign recently. But hey, it’s a gift that keeps on giving. Any subject that covers government regulation, IT, law, and nudity — gosh, how could you not talk about it? Actually, this is not a substantive post...

End of a Very Long Week

Posted on January 16, 2009
Well, actually last week was longer, but even so, I’m exhausted. In addition to having too much work to do, there are a lot of deadlines coming up (before Spring Festival). Moreover, I am traveling next week and need to get stuff done between now and the end of Monday...

Forcing Creativity

Posted on January 14, 2009
Since I attended kindergarten, I have had a loathing for cutesy, interactive classroom activities. Perhaps it’s my cold personality (a Chinese colleague, showing off his English vocab, called me ‘cadaverous’ the other day. I just shrugged it off)...

Economy, Unrest and Porn in 2009

Posted on January 14, 2009
Thanks to Danwei and People’s Daily, yesterday I was able to connect the dots and integrate most of the major China stories of the day — in my twisted mind, at least. First I read a linked People’s Daily article, which to me represents all those doom and gloom/bad economy stories...

Economic Crisis and the Black Death

Posted on January 09, 2009
When a screenwriter puts pen to paper in hopes of crafting a tale about heroes and villains, there is one fundamental that hasn’t changed in 50 years or so: throw in some Nazis as your bad guys. You can’t lose with Nazis. For novels about medieval Europe, nothing compares to the Black Death as a backdrop...

Tudou Definitely Looking for that Safe Harbor

Posted on January 08, 2009
Yesterday’s post on copyright infringement litigation and video file sharing sites would have been better served if I had waited a couple of hours and seen this bit of news: Shanghai-based video site Tudou.com is testing a reporting system for copyright owners that is expected to launch after China’s week-long Spring Festival holiday, which begins January [...

Google Trademark Case is Interesting After All

Posted on January 08, 2009
(I just re-read this post. It is extremely wonkish, so if you aren’t an IP lawyer, I would not suggest reading this.) This bit of cryptic news came in yesterday: Google Inc, owner of the world’s most-used Internet search engine, won a lawsuit in China over its subsidiary’s name and trademark in Chinese, ending an 18-month dispute [...

Cyberlitigation Update - Looking for a Chinese Safe Harbor

Posted on January 07, 2009
This is a follow up to several posts last year on IP litigation involving online service providers. You can read background here and here. As a refresher, current litigation in the U.S., China and other countries involves the following: A huge ongoing issue in cyber-litigation is liability for platform operators...

Slow, Yet Racy, News Day

Posted on January 06, 2009
Still catching up from the holiday, so nothing exciting from me on the blog front. In addition to being generally busy, the news itself has not been much of a source of interest thus far in 2009. Today, for example, the top story seems to be about the government’s attempts to eradicate Internet porn...

Best China Stories of 2008

Posted on December 31, 2008
On second thought, I’m much too lazy to go back and research the top stories of the year, review them, and add new comments. Sounds like way too much work this close to another holiday. Do your own research. (Hint: keywords/phrases like "Olympics," "financial crisis," and "labor contract law" might be helpful...

Predictions for 2009

Posted on December 31, 2008
1. The stock market will, for the first time in history, move into negative territory. Yes, companies will be paying you to hold their crappy shares. 2. Commercial leases will become so inexpensive that the guys selling lamb chuan(r) on the street will be able to move into storefront operations (without raising their prices)...

There Are No Coincidences - trade edition

Posted on December 30, 2008
You will either find this very interesting or come away thinking that I’m a conspiracy theorist that hides in the basement with tin foil on my head (so as to block alien transmissions from Mars, of course). Here’s the deal. Earlier this month, the US Trade Representative complained to the WTO about China’s support (more specifically, [...

China Branding Tip #17

Posted on December 30, 2008
As a trademark lawyer who has worked for a lot of foreign brand owners in China, I usually like to tell horror stories of companies that failed to register their Chinese names, companies that failed to choose good Chinese names, and companies that are lazy and have let their distributors/licensees/the market choose their Chinese names...

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