Whether overseas arbitration institutions could govern the contract disputes between two domestic foreign-funded companies?

Company A, a US funded enterprise in Jiangsu, and Company B, a Japanese funded enterprise in Shanghai, have signed a sales contract, in which stipulates that in the event of a dispute, either party may submit it to an arbitration institution in Hong Kong for arbitration. Is this agreement valid? A typical viewpoint is that one of the basic principles…

Read More

An employee was hit by a car on his way home on the day of resignation, is it a work-related injury or not?

At noon on July 31, 2017, Wong completed his resignation procedures and left the company. Unexpectedly, Wong was dead in a traffic accident on his way home. He was not liable in this accident. Wong’s family filed an application for work-related injury recognition, the Human Resources and Social Security Bureau of Shanghai Pudong New District approved the application. The company…

Read More

Do AI generated images and articles shall be deemed as “works” protected by the “Copyright Law”?

At the end of November 2023, a judgment by the Beijing Internet Court sparked heated discussions. In this case, the plaintiff used AI to generate images and published them on Xiaohongshu (an app), the defendant used those images in his article. The plaintiff filed a lawsuit to the court on the grounds of copyright infringement. The first instance judgment of…

Read More

Risks and precautionary measures related to sponsorship

In order to contribute to the community and enhance awareness for brands, many companies would sponsor public service activities, themed conference, competitions, and etc., no matter voluntarily or not. Such sponsorship is supposed to be a win-win event, but if the sponsorship is implemented in a wrong way, it may bring risks to those companies. Generally, the risks related to…

Read More

In business activities, whether alcohol-related deaths could be identified as work-related injuries?

At the end of each year, various business gatherings and enterprises’ annual parties are typical programs. Alcohol is one of the links in those activities. Some people may be tipsy, some people may get drunk, and some people may die. If an individual died due to drinking too much alcohol in a business gathering, whether such death could be identified…

Read More

Can you check your employees’ medical records?

The biggest headache for the HR department is the fake sick leave, such as, an employee went to a hospital and registered for an appointment with the doctor, however, he left after got the registration receipt; an employee brought a fake sick leave certificate; or an employee asked for sick leave regarding his back pain continually. In order to eliminate…

Read More

“Tanking”, when the counterparty breaches the contract

Recently, we received a consultation from company A, stating that its counterparty had breached the contract, whether they could “Tanking”? For example, they can suspend the supply. When there is an economic downturn, defaults become common. Many companies may have the same concern as company A. From the perspective of litigation, such concern involves the issue of fulfilling the First…

Read More

“Take a back seat” in the management of retirement

A company with a longer history may have more senior managers who are going to retire. The successors are ambitious. As the old saying goes, “There is a radish in every pit”, so there must be conflicts of interest between those senior managers and their successors. In Japan, many companies implement a "fixed service year system", which means that companies…

Read More