Last week, Yao Ming announced that he has begun legal proceedings against Wuhan-based Yunhe Sharks Sportswear Co. for trademark infringement. For years, the sportswear company had been using Yao Ming’s brand to sell sneakers. It is unknown how much in damages Yao Ming is looking for. more ›

While Aftershock, the movie about the Tangshan Earthquake of 1976, has been excessively popular, it's also been excessively pumped full of advertising - including 20 minutes of adverts before the movie even started. One woman was so mad, she sued. more ›

So everyone's been talking in circles about Google potentially leaving China. We've heard that Google will undeniably shut down, and that they might not; that Google is taking a stand for beliefs, or just can't compete in China; that the Chinese government wants to keep politics out of it, and "the Google incident is not just a commercial incident, it is a political incident." more ›

We guess it couldn't have been long before all that construction and shuffling of residents in the months leading up to the World Expo pissed off some people. 50 Shanghainese whose homes were demolished to make way for the Expo 2010 site are now threatening to sue the event organizer, the International Exhibitions Bureau, according to the South China Morning Post. At a press conference in Hong Kong, League fo Chinese Victims director Sandy Shen Ting said that 18,000 Shanghai households had been affected by the expo since 2002. Allegedly, many homes were razed without compensation, or with not enough compensation to buy a new apartment in the same district. Those who refused to leave have been beatuen or detained by police. The suit, which would be filed in Paris, accuses the IEB of allowing the Shanghai government to stage the event even though it has failed to live up to the slogan "Better City, Better Life." more ›

A Chinese businessman is trying to sue hurdling champion Liu Xiang after injuring himself while driving a luxury car the Olympian had endorsed. The Jiangxi resident had collided with a truck and banged his nose on the windscreen when the car's airbags failed to activate. His doctor's bill amounted to almost 1000 RMB. Since he had bought the car because of an advert featuring Liu, the hurdler was obviously responsible. In that vein, we're thinking of suing this guy's mother for offending our sensibilities by producing such a dickwad... it makes about as much sense. Source: Reuters more ›

A couple whose wedding photo album came with the characters "no freedom, no future" printed on it has sued the photo studio. According to China Daily, the studio explained their actions by saying that the words "were merely pointing out that some freedoms are lost with marriage and meant no ill will to the marriage". After mediation, the photo studio agreed to pay RMB12,500 to the couple. more ›

According to the Wall Street Journal, a lawsuit against the Bank of China has been filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, claiming that Bank of China transferred millions of dollars for terrorist groups bent on attacking Israel, ignoring demands by Israeli counterterrorism officials to halt the practice. The lawsuit was brought on behalf of more than 100 victims of terrorism in Israel and alleges that the money was transferred for the militant groups Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Iran and Syria, and processed through Bank of China's branches in the U.S. and China. "I don't know about the matter," Wang Zhaowen, spokesman for the bank, told Dow Jones Newswires. According to one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, Bank of China now has 20 days to respond to the lawsuit under U.S. legal procedures. more ›

On August the 5th the Spanish National Court agreed to hear a lawsuit accusing the Chinese government of genocide in Tibet. According to SBS World News Australia the suit was filed on July 9 against seven Chinese leaders, including Defence Minister Liang Guanglie, by the Tibet Support Committee and two other Tibetan groups. The lawsuit relates to the unrest in Tibet in March this year where, according to the Tibetan government-in-exile, 203 Tibetans were killed. According to Beijing though, only one Tibetan died during the unrest. Spain's National Court is able to try this kind of case under the principal of "universal competence" adopted by the Spanish judiciary in 2005, which allows countries courts to hear cases of genocide and crimes against humanity wherever they occur and whatever the nationality of the defendant. Hmm. more ›

The yuan broke the 7.4 mark against the US dollar for the first time yesterday largely fueled by expectations that China is seeking a quicker appreciation of the currency to fight inflation. more ›

Scene from HiPiHi.com from Torley. more ›

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Elsewhere - Indian-born billionaire Lakshmi Mittal - the fifth richest man in the world - has emerged as a contender to buy Birmingham, while Arsenal faces a takeover bid from an Arab tycoon Mohammed Al Hashimi who was a partner in a £450million bid to buy Liverpool. In the meanwhile, ousted billionaire Thai premier Thaksin Shinawatra, is reportedly poised to buy English football's Manchester City, although the Bank of Thailand said it has not received a money transfer request from Thaksin. Are Asians going to take over the English Premier League someday? more ›

Last month, we posted a slideshow of fake (or almost fake) products found in China. Well, while traveling in Shandong last week, we found another item to add to the already-amazingly-long list. It's WOERMA orange juice. What's WOERMA, you ask? Well, it's the pinyin name for Wal-Mart. They even use the exact same characters (沃尔玛) as Wal-Mart in China. more ›

Shanghai Daily had the following headline that caught our eye: "Suicide's wife ordered to compensate landlord." What sort of damage could an event as emotionally traumatic as a suicide cause that would justify any sort of compensation to a third party? Turns out, the kind of damage that most elite in Shanghai fear the most: property devaluation. more ›

Chinese news portal CHINA.ORG.CN reported today that the controversial construction of a giant dragon inside Shizhu Mountain National Forest Park was halted by local government. more ›

But they only get RMB 25,000 in damages. The movie companies involved in the suit were New Line Productions, Walt Disney, Warner Bros Entertainment, Columbia Pictures, Universal Studios, 20th Century Fox and Paramount Pictures. The defendant was listed as Shanghai Leying Audio Visual Co. Ltd, but this story tells us the company also went by the name "Kadi" and was " well-known to many expatriates in Shanghai for selling pirated products." We think it might be safe to assume that they are talking about Ka De Club, the chain (?) of DVD shops that has been fleecing foreigners for years (OK, perhaps fleecing is a little strong — their prices were around 3 or 4 kuai higher than other shops selling the same thing). Evidently, the name change occurred after charges were filed, so the shop could continue to operate. We've lost track of Ka De — it moved around quite a bit over the years, trying to avoid Johnny Law, we assume (the raid that led to this lawsuit was in Changning) — and then there were Ka De clones, we think, trying to cash in on the "good" name. We have a feeling they'll be back. more ›

Several months ago, we heard about a Shandong woman named Wang Jing who created a website denouncing her own father as an adulterer (report in Chinese). On Feb. 5, a local court ruled that the website, which contained writings denouncing Wang's father Wang Zhihua and his alleged mistress Li Cuilian, was "insulting" and ordered that Wang Jing take it down. In August, Li had filed a lawsuit against the younger Wang. The "insulting" verdict is, we think, less serious an offense than libel. However, the court did order the website to be taken down and the younger Wang placed under some kind of supervision (and we don't know what that "supervision" entails), unless the younger Wang decides to file an appeal. more ›

While we're on copycats, Starbucks has won a landmark lawsuit against a Shanghai rival that's been using its Chinese name and a similar logo, ending a long drawn-out battle that has lasted three years. Apparently, some very enterprising (but uncreative) Chinese dude registered the name Xingbake (星巴克) before the Seattle-based coffee giant even set foot in China. Xingbake is the Chinese transliteration and name of Starbucks. Think about a German guy running along to register the name Schtahbaks and you get the idea. Anyhow, Shanghai Xingbake has been ordered to stop using the name, pay Starbucks RMB500,000 in compensation and to issue a public apology. Shanghaiist is reminded that when he first set foot in the city four years ago, there was a Moonbucks cafe situated in the Yu Gardens. Does anyone happen to have a picture of the logo? Send it to us, and we'll take you out to coffee (at the real Starbucks of course). more ›

We didn't mean for our post about transportation card fees to be controversial — we were just reporting on a national news story — but the topic struck a chord ... and did all the attention cause the Shanghai transportation card fees to be lowered? Marc van der Chijs reports: more ›

When you buy a transportation card in Shanghai (交通卡 or jiao tong ka), you have to make an RMB 30 "deposit". So for example, if you give a RMB 100 note when you buy your card, it will only be credited with RMB 70. more ›

From The Search Engine Journal we discovered that Baidu won an intellectual copyright infringement case against some major music companies. From Interfax: more ›

From Reuters: more ›

For the ever-pragmatic Chinese, adopting English names has always represented a way for them to bridge the linguistic and cultural gap. Now, as China widens its reach abroad and as the number of expatriates living in China swells, picking an English name has become a rite of passage for most young, urban Chinese. So ... this is news?

Shanghaiist mentioned China's first blogger versus blogger lawsuit several weeks ago, and since then, the case has been pending and we haven't heard much about it until just now. To refresh your memory, Shen Yang accused blogger Qin Chen (real name Zhang Ming) of libelous, defamatory remarks about him on his blog. Zhang Ming is a recent university graduate and said that Shen Yang started it, and that people who've been trolling the blogosphere enough know that Shen Yang is an arrogant asshole who deserved whatever criticism he received. When the case first started Shen Yang wanted 100,000 RMB and 30 days of public apologies, but according to this report (in Chinese), Shen Yang did win the case, but all he got was 1,010 yuan for public notarizing fees and an apology that Zhang Ming must put on his blog. more ›

Photo by raincontreras taken from the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site. more ›

Two reporters, Weng Bao (翁宝) and Wang You (王佑) of a leading Chinese financial newspaper 《第一财经日报》have had their financial assets frozen in connection with a defamation lawsuit filed by Foxconn (富士康), the company that runs the controversial iPod factories in China. It started with this:

On June 15, China Business News published a story by Wang You "Foxconn workers: The machine punishes you to stand 12 hours," describing the alleged harsh working conditions and low pay in the Taiwan-funded company.

Photo by theshanghaieye taken from the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site. more ›

Photo by Monkeyking taken from the Shanghaiist Contribute page. To see your photos on our Contribute page, use Flickr and tag your photos “shanghaiist”. Or you can email your photos to photos@shanghaiist.com and they will automatically appear on our site. more ›

media reported on Friday. They welded the cage shut. Add him and his wife to the ranks of the sexually frustrated. more ›