Pretty much every month, one of my law firm’s international lawyers gets an email or a phone call from someone (often a fellow lawyer) seeking assistance with making a China related document legal for some sort of use somewhere in the world. Maybe 40 percent of the time, the request relates to a need to
Employee probation in China has to be one of the most misunderstood issues in China employment law. Westerners just assume their probationary employees are at will employees who can be fired at any time, for good reason or for no reason at all. Wrong. The probation period is PART of the normal employment term and
An article from CBCNews, B.C. winery owners facing life in Chinese prison for smuggling, shows how risky it can be to get on the wrong side of China’s customs service. The article is on a Canadian couple facing a long jail term in China for allegedly underreporting the value of the British Columbia wine they
China’s new Cybersecurity Law will become effective on June 1, 2017. In addition to focusing on cybersecurity, the law also details how companies are to handle personal information and data. In determining what is allowed and not allowed for handling personal information in China, it is important to examine The Decision on Strengthening Information Protection on Networks (2012), The Guidelines
Law students and recent law school graduates are always contacting our China lawyers to ask what they should do to become international lawyers focused on China law. My advice is usually a somewhat rambling dissertation on the need to build a solid legal foundation while constantly working to improve your foreign language skills. I then
The PRC Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security recently released a set of rules regarding providing public notice of China employer labor violations (《重大劳动保障违法行为社会公布办法》). The goal of these new rules is to deter employers from violating China’s labor and employment laws and regulations. These rules will take effect on January 1, 2017, and they
It is far cheaper to avoid China employment law problems than to deal with one that has arisen. If you follow the following eight rules, your chances of having a China employment problem will markedly decrease. 1. Use written employment contracts. China employers without a written employment contract are exposing themselves to penalties, administrative fines and the risk of
Generally speaking, China employees must be employed under a written employment contract. Such a contract may be for a fixed or an indefinite term. When it comes to unilaterally terminating an employment contract, China employment law does not treat the employee and the employer as equal parties; the employee has much more power than the
With Amazon and Ebay having increased their efforts at bringing in Chinese sellers and with Chinese manufacturers branching out and making their own products, the number of companies contacting our international intellectual property lawyers about problems with counterfeit products and knockoffs has soared. If the problem involves infringing products being imported into the United States,
The first step for drafting an international product sales agreement is to deal with the basic sales terms. The terms for customization and cooperative design can come later.
