【BD】一定要持有中国合同的原件
出自识林
【BD】一定要持有中国合同的原件
笔记 2014-08-07 识林 近年来及时的全球交易已经变得越来越容易,这主要是依赖于现代技术的进步。在传真机之前的老日子里,我们使用电报(Telex)和电传(TWX)消息进行全球交流(我怀疑很多读者是否记得或知道Telex或TWX!),另外因为我们没有今天快捷的快递服务,如DHL、FedEx或其它快递,我们不得不通过各自国家的政府邮政服务发送原始文件,有时需要花费2-4周或者更长的时间原始文件才能到达收件人。传真节省了很多时间,但是现在大多已被替换为通过邮件发送PDF扫描文档。 然而,即使电子邮件和PDF扫描文档的方便性和速度发生了变化,如果您只有签订后的中国合同的电子文件,这些合同可能在中国法院不具有强制执行性。换句话说,一定要得到您所有的签订后的中国合同的原件!!!虽然这项政策将来可能改变,我的理解是,2010年12月10日北京第一中级人民法院的决定证实了2001年《最高人民法院关于民事诉讼证据的若干规定》第49条,当事人有权要求出示原件,否则不接纳为证据。(因为一些有恶意的人可以使用Photoshop或其它编辑软件修改电子文件以呈现与原件不同的内容,我个人认为这项规定是可以理解的,也是合理的。)因为中国法院不使用在美国称为“证据开示(discovery)”的方法,在2010年的这件案子中的被告人没有义务提供证据帮助原告,即使被告有原件!这件案子中(且不论原告是否正确),原告无法提供原件(涉及商标权的争议),而且由于商标许可协议没有在中国注册,原告败诉。 我与大家分享这些,以此让大家知道针对所有的中国合同拿到有着中国官方印章的签字原件的重要性,而不是在美国相当普遍的做法仅有扫描签字页PDF文档。中国合同除了获得有印章的签字原件,我个人的做法是让合同签字各方在合同每页的底部签署姓名首字母,同时在每一示例页也签署姓名首字母。尽管我从来没有遇到过有人替换已签订合同中的一页,在合同文件每页底部签署姓名首字母可以更好的保护您和您的机构防止这类事件的发生。 将您的想法、建议和故事发送到 pas@pascoventures.com, 也许我会收录到将来的文章中。愿您的业务能让世界变得更宜人! Certified Licensing Professional - Paul Stewart先生 2014-08-01 Be sure to get ORIGINALS of your signed Chinese contracts!!! Doing deals in a timely fashion around the world has gotten SO much easier in recent years, mainly due to advances in modern technology. In the 'old' days before faxes, we communicated internationally using Telex and TWX messages (I doubt that many readers of this post remember or even know about Telex or TWX!), and because we did not have today's rapid courier services like DHL, FedEx or the like, we had to send original documents via the governmental postal services in our respective countries, and it sometimes took 2-4 weeks or longer for original documents to reach their addressees. Faxes were a great time saver, but they have now largely been replaced by scanned PDF documents that are sent via e-mail. Yet, even though today’s convenience and speed of e-mail and scanned PDF documents has changed, it is possible that if the only thing you have of your signed Chinese contracts are electronic documents, those contracts may be not be enforceable in a Chinese court. Said another way, be sure to get ORIGINALS of all of your signed Chinese contracts!!! Although this policy may change in the future, my understanding is that a 10-December-2010 decision by the Beijing No. 1 Intermediate People's Court affirmed Article 49 of the 2001 Supreme People's Court rules on evidence that allow a party in a dispute the right to demand that the original documents be submitted or else not admitted as evidence. (Because people with nefarious intentions can use Photoshop or other editing software to modify electronic documents to appear different than what the original document looked like, I personally feel that this ruling is understandable and reasonable.) And, because courts in China do not use what is called “discovery” in the USA, the defendant in this 2010 case was under no obligation to produce evidence to help the plaintiff, even if the defendant had the original! In that case (and regardless of whether the plaintiff was in the right), the plaintiff was not able to produce original documents (the dispute involved trademarks), and because the trademark license agreement was not registered in China, the plaintiff lost their case. I share all of this with you so that you are aware of the importance of getting signed originals – with the official Chinese corporate seal or 'chop' – for all of your Chinese contracts, not just a scanned signature page in a PDF file that is fairly common practice in the USA. And, in addition to getting signed originals with a chop on Chinese contracts, my own personal practice is to have the person who signs the contract for each party to also initial at the bottom of each page of the contract and to initial each exhibit page. Although I've never had any situations where someone removed a page and inserted a different page into an already-signed contract, having the initials at the bottom of each page of a contract document can give you and your organization better protection that someone will not do such a thing. Send me your ideas, suggestions and stories to pas@pascoventures.com and perhaps I'll include them in a future post. May your deals help to make our world a better place to live! 识林www.shilinx.com,版权所有,如需转载请注明出处 |