Microsoft's latest global anti-piracy effort has provoked a popular outcry and a legal challenge in China. The main issue: Microsoft's bundling of anti-piracy programs with system updates, a practice that is also under challenge in the United States. Chinese regulatory and industry reactions underscore the strength of the country's resistance to the tech giant's actions.

A downloadable update from Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT) for Windows XP Professional users in China distributed last week resets desktop backgrounds to black every hour for those computers running pirated Microsoft software. It also posts a persistent desktop alert in the lower right corner warning users they are running bootleg software.

The program prompted a Beijing lawyer, Dong Zhengwei, to file a privacy complaint this week with the State Public Security Bureau and an anti-monopoly complaint with the State Administration for Industry and Commerce. Dong charged that Microsoft's action violates user privacy, by intruding on users' computers without their permission. He also claims that Microsoft is abusing its dominant position in violation of the country's anti-monopoly law, passed in August. Microsoft, however, stressed the importance of protecting intellectual property and said its update complies with Chinese regulations.

Dong's privacy and anti-monopoly claims have no legal basis, said Steven Dickinson, a China-based lawyer for Harris Moure, because Chinese law does not uphold the concept of "user privacy," and the anti-monopoly law exempts legal monopoly arising from intellectual property protection.

China is gearing up to launch or fight World Trade Organization disputes with the U.S. more aggressively, but it doesn't have enough of its own lawyers to do it. Chinese law firms are scrambling to build up their WTO practices, but they face industry challenges. So it looks like Beijing will stick with U.S. law firms to fight its WTO battles, while China's legal industry races to ameliorate its competitive disadvantage, in a process that could take many years.

China has only started to play a starring role in the WTO dispute process (See Part One of Series: "China's Coming Of Age In The WTO War"). So Chinese law firms simply do not have the buildup of skills and experience that U.S. peers have in global trade disputes.

"We are newcomers to the WTO. We still need some time to build up full capacity," said Xiao Jin, a WTO lawyer for the mainland Chinese law firm King & Wood, which helped defend the Chinese government in the recently decided anti-piracy case filed by the U.S.

There are just three to four Chinese law firms equipped to handle WTO disputes, based on various lawyers' estimates. The U.S. has three to four top-tier WTO law firms and about a dozen other law firms that have WTO practices.

Though the United States media have published a number of stories deriding China's intellectual property protection, those articles nearly always neglect to mention that in most instances involving trademarks, the fault lies with the foreign company, not with Chinese enforcement. The reality is that many foreign companies fail to register their trademarks in China and thus have no real right to complain about any "infringement" there. To expect protection, foreign companies must register their trademarks in China and the prudent company does this before going in.

There are actually a number of people in China who make a living by usurping foreign trademarks and then selling a license to that trademark to the original license holder. Once one comes to grip with the fact that China, like most of the rest of the world is a "first to file" country, one can understand how easy this usurpation is, and also, how easy it is to prevent it.

The fact that you are manufacturing your product in China just for export does not in any way minimize the need for you to protect your trademark. Once someone registers "your" trademark in China, they have the power to stop your goods at the border and prevent them from leaving China.

The key to protecting a trademark in China is actually very simple: register it in China.

China's trademark requirements are actually quite similar to those in most other countries. The trademark must not conflict with an existing Chinese trademark and it must be distinctive. China allows for registration of all marks for goods, services, collective marks and certification marks.

Ok.  You're considering filing for bankruptcy relief under Chapter 7 of the bankruptcy code.  You may have heard about the 'means test' and how the US Trustee can file motions or complaints under Section 707(b) to dismiss a case or force it to be converted to a Chapter 13.  You might then ask, how and why would this happen, and how can you avoid it happening to you? 

To address these concerns, it is useful to think in terms of what the US Trustee is looking for in your petition.  The answer is, in a word, income (In a later article we'll consider what the case/interim trustee is looking for, which is something entirely different from the concerns of the US Trustee).  That is not to say, of course, that your petition can be inaccurate with such other information as assets and liabilities.  The US Trustee's overriding focus, however, is the debtor's income.  Let's take a closer look at the process.

Jintropin is probably one of the cheapest somatropin products out there. We already know that nobody can beat the Chinese on price. Compared to the western brands the quality is supposed to be the same, however, there is no way to know that, since Jintropin is not licensed in the US and as far as we know anywhere else but china. Because of the huge discount; we are talking about 60% or more it makes it a very desirable product regardless of the risks involved. In fact, the price makes it affordable to most, whereas a name brand is only affordable to very few.
Gensci the manufacturer of jintropin seems to be well respected in china but what I found puzzling is that they don't have a credit card payment option online to buy their product, which means you take all the risk by sending your money via western union. There have been many cases when people did send the money but never received anything or received counterfeit products instead. On the official jintropin site now they have a verification tool to verify whether the jintropin in your hand is genuine or not; they also warn that they can guarantee the quality of the product only if it is ordered directly from them.

I personally would be hesitant to send 1600 dollars to china over western union; as far as western union is concerned you have no legal recourse to recover your money if you don't get the jintropin. Also there is also a possibility that the jintropin might get stopped at customs as it is illegal to receive such product from other countries via mail.

There has been reports of people suffering allergic reactions known as spider bites that are rarely seen with somatropin made in FDA approved labs. The most disgusting rumor is the one about the product not being made from the use of bacteria but rather from pituitary glands harvested from cadavers. As far as I am concerned rumors like these are enough to scare me away. With a Chinese based product no US lawyer will be able to help you as in China medical malpractice is not a concern. In other words no American medical malpractice attorney or American medical malpractice law would be of any help to you over there. So I personally would not risk my health just to save few bucks.

It would be interesting to hear from people who had this spider bites problem with the Chinese version. Almost forgot it is illegal to import Chinese medical products that have not been approved by the FDA, so on top of risking your health you could end up doing some prison time as it is a federal offense to import hgh. Before risking a lot of money try an HGH supplement for free! from this site as it has a list of the best selling hgh products online backed up by a 100% money back guarantee.