Norton Rose Fulbright (LexBlog China)

On January 17, 2024, the Supreme People’s Court of China (“SPC”) published its decision upholding a ruling in favor of Sennics Chemical Technology Co., Ltd. (“Sennics”), granting them an award of RMB 201.54 million (around USD 27.86m) in a case against Chen Yonggang (“Chen”) and Yuncheng Jinteng Chemical Technology Co., Ltd. (“Jinteng”). This is currently...

In recent years, diversity and inclusion (D&I) in the financial services sector has become a focus for regulators around the world. Individual regulators, however, have taken different approaches to D&I to reflect the local socio-economic environment. Below, we provide a high-level summary of the position across a number of key jurisdictions. Jurisdiction Summary of regulatory...

On 28 September 2023, the Cybersecurity Administration of China (CAC) released the Draft Provisions on Regulating and Promoting Cross Border Data Flow (规范和促进数据跨境流动规定) (Draft Provisions) for public consultation. The Draft Provisions, if passed, will ease the requirements around cross border data transfer under the Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL). The consultation closed on 15 October...

The Provisional Administrative Measures of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services (Generative AI Measures), were published by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), together with six other authorities, on 13 July 2023 and will take effect from 15 August 2023. The Generative AI Measures, along with the likely enactment of the Artificial Intelligence Law in the 2023 legislative...

In our previous post (here), we talked about a change being proposed by the China National Intellectual Property Administrative (commonly known as CNIPA), prohibiting repeated filings for the same trade mark.  This was particularly concerning to brand owners and trade mark practitioners because, presently, it has been common practice to re-file identical back-up applications to...

We are just a few months into 2023, but we are already seeing a number of proposed changes to Chinese Trademark Law.  We wish to draw attention to some of the upcoming structural changes to the China National Intellectual Property Administration (commonly known as CNIPA) and to highlight a few draft amendments to China’s Trademark...

On March 8, 2023, China deposited an instrument for accession to the Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (also known as the “Apostille Convention”). Upon the scheduled implementation of the Apostille Convention in China on November 7, 2023, the expensive and time-consuming consular legalisation procedure that foreign...

The long awaited details with respect to cross border data transfer under the China Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) have very recently been published by the Chinese authorities. The details are set out in three documents: final Certification Guidelines for Cross Border Data Transfer (网络安全标准实践指南 – 个人信息跨境处理活动安全认证规范 “) (“Certification Guidelines“) released on 24 June 2022;...

On 24 June 2022, there was published in the Official Journal of the EU (OJ): Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/984 of 22 June 2022 on the equivalence of the regulatory framework of the People’s Republic of China for central counterparties (CCPs) that are authorised to clear OTC derivatives in the interbank market and supervised by...

On 22 June 2022, the European Commission adopted two equivalence decisions for central counterparties (CCPs) under the supervision of the People’s Bank of China and the Israel Securities Authority. Both equivalence decisions do not come into force until published in the Official Journal of the EU. The equivalence decisions follow the recent decisions adopted for...

On 3 June 2022, the International Platform on Sustainable Finance (IPSF) updated the Common Ground Taxonomy (CGT) Instruction Report and the CGT Table of Activities. The updates follow an earlier consultation that the IPSF ran last year. The CGT is based on the activities currently included in both the adopted EU taxonomy for sustainable activities...

Design patents, sometimes referred to as industrial designs, protect the aesthetic appearance of a product. As with other registered IP rights, the protection offered is, generally speaking, territorial in scope. In other words, unless international or regional treaties are available, a grant of design rights has to be obtained individually in each country of interest....

The Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) released the draft Security Review Measures for Cross-Border Data Transfer (the Draft Security Review Measures) for public comments on 29 October 2021 – shortly before the effective date of the Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL), 1 November 2021. The three pillars of China’s cyber security and data legislation –...

As an old Chinese proverb goes, “what one loses on the swings, he gets back on the roundabouts.” This is exactly what happened to Jaguar Land Rover in its claim against Land Wind (Jiangling Motors) in China for copying of Jaguar Land Rover’s car design. Background After their patent battle from 2014 to 2019, the...

China passed its Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) on 20 August 2021. This is China’s first omnibus data protection law, and will take effect from 1 November 2021 allowing companies just over two months to prepare themselves. The PIPL is a game changer for any company with data or business in China. It will add...

China passed its Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) on 20 August 2021.  The new law will take effect from 1 November 2021 allowing companies just over 2 months to prepare themselves. The full text has not been made public yet. In addition, China published the Provisions on the Administration of Security of Automobile Data (For...

China’s Cyber Security Law (CSL), enacted in 2016, requires operators of critical information infrastructure (CII) to follow a number of enhanced security obligations, including storing within China all personal information and important data collected or generated during their operations in China. Given the more onerous obligation on CII operators, we are constantly asked the same...

China’s much anticipated Personal Information Protection Law (PIPL) is very likely to pass this month after the conclusion of the 30th meeting of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, which is to be held in Beijing on 17-20 August. This follows the enactment earlier this year of the Data Security Law (DSL), which...

Since 2013, China has gradually introduced the concept of punitive damages in the amendments to several laws on intellectual property rights, in which the elements of punitive damages were also stipulated, namely the infringement has to be “intentional” or “malicious” and “serious”. In 2020, the Civil Code was officially adopted, and it stipulates that the...

Although it is not strictly necessary to file for a trade mark registration before using a mark, there are significant advantages to securing trademark protection, particularly in a company’s primary markets.  Amongst other benefits, a trademark registration gives the owner the exclusive right to use that mark in association with the goods and services covered...

The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region and the Supreme People’s Court of the People’s Republic of China recently signed a joint record of meeting on mutual recognition of, and assistance to bankruptcy and insolvency proceedings between the courts of the Mainland and of the HKSAR. International Corporate Rescue has now published an...

Background E-commerce has brought many opportunities for brands to expand their footprint and tap into global markets. However, it has also given rise to a myriad of intellectual property (IP) infringement issues for companies, particularly for trade mark infringement and counterfeit activity. As the e-commerce market has matured, new trends have emerged, posing fresh challenges...

Authored by Frank Liu, Shanghai Pacific Legal   Although the pandemic has had a significant impact on economies around the world this year, China’s buoyant economy has continued to attract a significant amount of foreign investment. In contrast to foreign enterprises with mature operations in China, a new enterprise will often face the issue of...

In the last decade there has been an exponential increase in the amount of patent filing originating from China, which, according to a recently published USPTO report, can be attributed to certain non-market factors including subsidies and targets set by various governmental authorities in China. Coincidently, or perhaps not coincidentally, the China National Intellectual Property...

2020 was a year of change and challenge. This holds true not only for the way we live and work, but also in relation to the patent laws and practices in the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”). In the last year, a number of significant amendments affecting various aspects of patent prosecution and enforcement were...

Patent Law Reform We discussed the second draft of proposed amendments to the People’s Republic of China (“PRC”) Patent Law in our previous blog post here. Since then, on 17 October 2020 the PRC National People’s Congress (“NPC”) approved most of the amendments, though the law as passed is different from the draft in two...

On 11 November 2020, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress passed the amendments to the China Copyright Law (the Amendments), which will take effect on 1 June 2021. This is the third time the Copyright Law has been amended since it was promulgated in 1990. The first comprehensive amendment took place in 2001,...

Further to the award of punitive damages to Balanced Body (revisit our blog post here), we have seen a string of cases in the first half of 2020 where Chinese judges awarded punitive damages to trade mark owners for trade mark infringement. Guangzhou Redsun was awarded 50 Million RMB against its ex-employee Guangzhou Redsun has...

Putting aside some recent COVID-related bumps in the road, China remains the world’s largest manufacturer. A large portion of its manufacturing consists of original equipment manufacturing (OEM) under contract. OEM involves manufacturing goods intended for export only, and not for sale domestically in China. This business model has solidified China as a critical manufacturing hub...

On 3rd July 2020, the National People’s Congress (NPC) of the People’s Republic of China released a second draft of proposed amendments to the PRC Patent Law for public consultation. In response to opinions from various government authorities and experts, the second draft incorporates several important changes of note: Partial design protection The draft includes...