National Mourning Ceremony In China

21st April 2010 is a special day for China. China held national mourning ceremony for more than 2 000 people died in last week’s earthquake.

Thousands of soldiers, civilians and officials in Xining and the provincial capital of Qinghai attended this ceremony.

Chinese national flags in Beijing, Qinghai and other areas were flown at hall-staff and the China government ordered cancellation of all the public entertainment on 21st April 2010.

All the media in China were concerned this mourning ceremony. Newspapers and websites reversed their front pages to white text on a black background as a traditional mark of mourning.

This is a serious earthquake happened in China after Sichuan earthquake. Now, China and its civilians are facing a challenge again. The only thing that I can do is pray for them include those are still alive and hope that they able to confront the challenges in the future. This is because we have to believe that tomorrow is always better than today, so that they have the courage to face those challenges.

This is a new from this website:

http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/asiapacific/news/article_1549703.php/China-mourns-victims-of-Yushu-earthquake

Prepared by,
Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

Types Of Personal Relief

Today, the tutorial class learnt about how to compute chargeable income. This is the formulation for Chargeable Income:

Chargeable Income = Total Income – Personal Relief

Types of Personal Relief are:

1. Further self relief = a further relief of RM 6 000 if the taxpayer is a disable person

2. Wife or Husband = a further relief of RM 3 500 if the wife or husband is a disable person

3. Medical expenses for parents can up to maximum RM 5 000

4. Medical expenses for taxpayer, spouse or children on serious diseases can up to maximum RM 5 000

5. Expenses on supporting unmarried children:

i. Below 18 years old = a further relief of RM 1 000 per child

ii. Disable child = a further relief of RM 5 000 per child

iii. Over 18 years old (pursuing tertiary education at university or college) = RM 4 000 per child

For further types of personal relief query, we can refer to

http://www.hasil.gov.my/lhdnv3/individuIndex.jsp?process=21000&menu=34&expandable=1&pg_title=Potongan%20Cukai

Prepared by,

Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

Nature Disasters

Today, I heard some news about the nature disaster which China Earthquake and Iceland Volcano. Since these few days I do not read any newspapers, I do not actually what happened in those countries.

When I look at the online newspapers, most of the flights to Europe are cancelled because of the Volcano in Iceland. I do not know how serious of the disasters in Iceland and I also unable to imaging it. But, I believe that this disaster seriously had destroyed the Europe economic. There are almost 6000 flights were cancelled to Iceland. This is also the title of most of the newspapers.

After read through the news, there is only 1 conclusion that I can make which is "Luckily I Stay In Malaysia".

Malaysia does not affected by this nature disaster. Therefore, I still can enjoy my life for this moment. I can enjoy a movie in cinema, enjoy my delicious dinner with my family and enjoy anything that I have now. This is a dream that for those are suffer in the nature disasters, yet I have this happiness easily.

We unable to avoid the nature disasters but what we can do is we have to protect the environment. I do not know that what we do will avoid the nature disasters. But, most important responsibility for us is we have to try our best to protect the environment and rescue our Earth.

This is some links about the Iceland:

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/04/14/iceland-volcano-evacuation.html

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/eu_iceland_volcano

This is some links about the Earthquake in China:

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2010/4/15/nation/6061194&sec=nation

Prepared by,
Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

Income Tax

All Malaysian are liable to pay tax on income accrued in, derived from or remitted to Malaysia. Sources of income can be taxed includes gains and profits from trade, profession and business, salaries, remunerations, gains and profits from an employment, dividends, interests or discounts, rents, royalties or premiums, pensions, annuities or other periodic payments and other gains or profits of an income nature not mentioned above.

Taxable income is arrived at after adjusting for expenses incurred wholly and exclusively in the production of the income.

The rate of tax depends on the resident status of the individual which is determined by the duration of his stay in the country (as stipulated under Section 7 in the Income Tax Act 1967). A resident individual is taxed on his chargeable income at graduated rates from 2% to 30% after the deduction of tax relief.

However, an individual with chargeable income of less than RM2,500 is not taxed. The chargeable income of an individual resident is arrived at by deducting from his or her total income the personal relief. Tax liability of a resident individual is reduced by rebates. Income tax matters in Malaysia are under the jurisdiction of Inland Revenue Board of Malaysia.

Income tax is supposed to be those poor who earn less will get taxed less. The rich who earn more will get higher taxed. Luckily, the law has states that the individual with chargeable income of less than RM 2,500 is not taxed. Therefore, income tax does not be a burden for those individuals.

In my life, I never paid any taxes. Therefore, I unable to experience how the income tax affect my life and how the feeling when I have to pay a tax. Due to those reasons, I do not have much knowledge about the income tax and only can know it during the business law class. This is an opportunity for me to explore extra information about the income tax to enhance my understanding about the income law. 1 thing that i know about income tax is most of the people dislike to pay the income tax because the procedures to report the income tax is messy.

Prepared by,
Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

Can Plaintiff Get Back The Premium?

Today, the business law class was talk about the insurance law.

The insurance contract is a contract that whereby one person, called the insurer, agrees to indemnify another person, called the insured, against a loss which may arise upon the occurrence of the particular event.

Premium is the consideration paid by the insured either in the form of a lump sum or periodical amount.

Doctrine of utmost good faith is 1 of the important component that covered in the insurance law. Doctrine of utmost good faith represents that each party to a proposed contract is under a duty to disclose to the other all information which would influence his decision to enter into the contract , whether such information is requested or not. Failure to disclose material information gives the other party the right to avoid the contract.

One of the cases I learnt in the class is Goh Chooi Leng v. Public Life Co. Ltd (1964). This case happened when a life insurance contract was made with the defendant company. The plaintiff made a false statement in the insurance policy. In the previous occasion the plaintiff was treated for pulmonary tuberculosis. But he did not disclose this information in the policy. So, the insurance company denied paying the insurance money. Finally, the court judged that the contract is voidable for non-disclosure of material information.

I have a doubt for this case. Since the court judged the contract is voidable and the defendant does not need to compensate the plaintiff then how about the premium?

The plaintiff was paid the premium to get compensation for loss but now he cannot get any compensation from the defendant. I will think that the plaintiff should also get back the premium because it is unfair to plaintiff due to he paid the premium but he cannot get anything finally. Although plaintiff has the responsible to disclose the information but maybe he does not realize those information are important and he must reported to the defendant. I believe that there are not all people that realize what information are important or vice versa.

Prepared by,
Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

MD gets rotan and 6 years

Today, I read a new from Star Online with a title “MD gets rotan and 6 years”.

Following is the news: "MD gets rotan and six years"

KUALA LUMPUR: A logging company managing director was sentenced to six years’ jail and ordered to be given three strokes of the rotan after he was convicted of cheating and money laundering.

Ibrahim Salleh of Jalinkom Sdn Bhd was charged with using some of the ill-gotten money to finance a trip to Sabah, as downpayment for a BMW, to buy insurance, pay telephone bills and also house rent.

He used fake documents, including a commercial invoice to cheat Bangkok Bank Public Co Ltd through Maybank Bhd, for delivery of timber and gained US$1.2mil (RM3.8mil) from the fraud.

The offence was committed on April 25, 2005 at about 10.30am at Menara Maybank here.

Ibrahim was sentenced to three years’ jail and three strokes of the rotan for defrauding the bank.

He was also sentenced to three years’ jail on each of 50 counts of money laundering, with the sentences to run concurrently.

Ibrahim was charged under Section 420 of the Penal Code with 50 other charges of laundering amounting to RM3.6mil under Section 4(1) of the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing Act 2001.

Judge Rozana Ali Yusoff said Ibrahim had failed to raise a reasonable doubt on the prosecution’s case where 37 witnesses were called to testify.

She ordered the sentences for cheating and money laundering to run consecutively.

In mitigation, defence counsel Hermes Media Putra Ibrahim said his 46-year-old client was the sole breadwinner and currently undergoing treatment for a heart ailment.

The judge granted a stay of execution to allow the defence to file an appeal to the High Court.

Based on this case, the defence finally got the punishment on his guilty. Although we do not know the reasons that the defence to make a crime but the law does not consider the reason or status of the defence to make a suitable judgement to the case. It is a good performance of the law to guarantee us and maintain the balance between the law and the society. At the same time, a reliable law able to enhance our confident to the law.

Prepared by,
Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

Caveat Emptor

Today lecture class for business law was discussed about Sale of Goods. 1 of the vocabulary I learnt in the class is Caveat Emptor.

Caveat Emptor is a Latin word which can translate to English with the meaning of “Let the buyer beware”. Basically, Caveat Emptor can be defined as a property law of doctrine that controls the sale of real property after that date of closing.

The buyer could not recover from the seller for defects on the property that rendered the property unfit for the ordinary purposes under the doctrine of Caveat Emptor. The exception of Caveat Emptor is when the seller actively hided latent defects or others made material misrepresentations amounting to fraud.

The law requires the goods must be of “merchantable quality”. Unfortunately, this implied warranty can be difficult to implement and may not apply to all products. Therefore, buyers are still advised to be cautions when purchase a good.

Caveat Emptor also applies on the return policy. There is no legal requirement for the seller provides a refund or exchange. For some cases, the seller will provide a credit instead of refund.

Case of Laidlaw v. Organ is a decision written in 1817 by Chief Justice John Marshall. It is believed by scholars to have been the first U.S. Supreme Court case which under the rule of Caveat Emptor in U.S law.

Prepared by,
Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

Exercise On Business Law

Today, the tutorial class for business class was cancel. Unfortunately, the lecturer had provided a group homework for us. The most headache problem is i unable to form a group since there are no students attend the class and i do not have any friends that also take business class in this semester.

The only way for me to get a group is i try to contract those are same course with me but he or she is not so close with me.

Oh my God! No people want to do the homework.

My remained hope also destroyed. Now, i only can do the homework by myself.

This is my answer for the homework.

1.Explain the nature and function of each of Memorandum of Association and Articles of Association.

Memorandum of Association

Contain the necessary components of the formation of the company.

The essential contents needed are:

•The name of the company (which must end with the words “Sendirian Berhad” if it is a private company, or just “Berhad” if it is a public company)

•The situation of the company’s registered office

•The objects of the company, i.e the nature of business intended to be carried out;

•That the liability of the members is limited

•The amount of authorized capital (minimum RM 100,000) and its division into class of shares and its specific value

•Name, identity card (if Malaysian), passport (if foreigner),address and occupation of each subscriber

•Name, designation and address of the witness to the signature of each subscriber.

•The nominal amount of the authorized share capital with which it is proposed to register the company and the division of such capital into shares of a fixed amount

•The association clauses

Must be signed by at least two subscribers; duly dated.

The signature of each subscriber must be witnessed by a third person.

Each of the subscribers must undertake to subscribe for one or more shares of the company.

Articles of Association

Contain the internal rules of a company and clauses dealing with under-mentioned matters.

The essential contents needed are:

•The name of the company

•The name of each first director (minimum two)

•The name of the first company secretary

•The minimum and maximum number of directors

•The share qualifications of each director, if any

•Name, identity card number (if Malaysian), passport (if foreigner), address and occupation of each subscriber

•Name, designation and address of the witness to the signature of each subscriber

Includes a condition governing the use of a company seal on certain formal documents such as share certificates.

2.Sporty Sdn. Bhd. made a contract with ChinaSport Corp (a Chinese company) to supply gymnastic equipments to Kuala Lumpur. Unknown to Gary, Ben had made a prior back agreement with ChinaSport Corp to allocate some shares of ChinaSport Corp to Ben personally as a gift for his role in concluding the contract with Sporty Sdn. Bhd. Gary only knew this later and he asked if there is anything he could do against Ben. Please advise him and support your answer with relevant decided case law.

Sporty Sdn Bhd can sue Ben because Ben was defrauding Sporty Sdn Bhd. The court would generally lift the veil of incorporation when there are contain the element of fraud involved by Ben as subscriber of 2 companies. In this case, Ben also received gift from ChinaSport Corp. In this situation, the case should refer to Aspatra Sdn Bhd & 21 ors v. Bank Bumiputra Malaysia Bhd & Anor (1988) case.

3.In undertaking the promotion activities, Promo Sdn. Bhd. had received loan amounting to RM 1million, that is currently outstanding (overdue) and exceeds the assets of Promo Sdn. Bhd. Bank Putri Berhad (the creditor) seeks to claim for the repayment from all the company’s owners, i.e. Sporty Sdn. Bhd., Lim and Leong. Please explain to them the law on this and who should be liable to pay the debt in this situation. Please support your answer with relevant decided case law.

Promo Sdn Bhd should be liable to pay the debt in this situation based on separate legal entity. Promo Sdn Bhd is a legal independent company and its financial problem should not relate with Sporty Sdn Bhd. This situation can refer to case Salomon v. Salomon Co. Ltd.

4.Knowing that Promo has an outstanding debt amounting to RM 1million, Lim and Leong, who also acted as directors of Promo Sdn. Bhd. secured another business with a third party in which Promo has to finance the project with their money first, and therefore they applied for another loan at another bank. The loan of RM 500K was approved, but not long after that the loan was due and it was obvious that Promo Sdn. Bhd. could not pay as it already became insolvent in the first place. In the view of doctrine of separate legal entity, please discuss the liabilities of the directors (Lim and Leong) in this case. Please support your answer with relevant decided case law.

In this case, Lim and Leong would be personally liable for the debts due to they were defrauding another bank which is the debt of RM 500k. This is because they know they are unable to pay the debt. This case can refer to Lee William Leitch Bros Ltd case. For the debt RM1 million should be the liabilities of Promo Sdn Bhd due to separate legal entity. This situation can refer to Salomon v. Salomon Co Ltd case. Promo Sdn Bhd is a legal independent company, therefore the directors do not hold the responsibility of debt of the company.

5.Gary and Ben wanted to sell all their shares to Jojo and Cool respectively. What is the effect of these transactions to the status of the company Sporty Sdn. Bhd.? Please justify your answer with a case law.

The employees are still belongs with Sporty Sdn Bhd although there was some changing between the shareholders. Sporty Sdn Bhd is a legal independent company. Therefore the company has the entity by its own. There are no reasons for the employees to think that their employment is ended since the changes of the shareholders. This situation can refer to Abdul Aziz bin Atan v. Ladang Rengo Malay Estate case.

Prepared by,

Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

Cases For Company Law

Today, I learnt a few cases for the Company Law. There are Salomon v. Salomon Co. Ltd, Lee v. Lee’s Air Farming, Macaura v. Northern Assurance Co and Abdul Aziz Atan v. Ladang Rengo Malay Estate.

The case I choose is Salomon v. Salomon Co.Ltd.

Summary:

Mr Salomon was a leather boot and shoe manufacturer. He turned his business into a limited company. His wife and 5 eldest children became subscribers. Mr Salomon took 20 001 of the company’s 20 007 shares. After the company was set up, the board directors had made a decision that to borrow money which is 10 000 from Salomon in the mortgage of the whole company’s asset. After 1 year, the Salmon & Co Ltd cannot make the assets equal to the debt and go into liquidation. In this case, the assets of Corporation compensate the secured debt of Salomon himself, and the other unsecured creditors will get nothing.

Lesson Learnt In This Case:

In law, legal person is not a real person but is a suppositional incorporation in law. The independent corporate personality is the nature and character of a legal person. Therefore, all the assets and debts are owned by the corporation but not the shareholder and the shareholders only enjoy the assets when the company go into the liquidation and compensate all the debts of secured creditors.

The limited corporation can enjoy the limited liability which means that the shareholders are responsible for the debts only the capital and practically they invest into corporation except the particular conditions.

My Opinion:

In my opinion, this is good news for the incorporation especially for the shareholders. This is because they do not have the responsibilities on the debt of the incorporation. Unfortunately, it is a disaster for the creditor especially unsecured creditors. Due to the failed in incorporation, the unsecured creditors may face problem to get back their money. This will affect the unsecured creditors’ business operation.

Prepared by,
Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

Holding Company Vs Subsidiary Company

Holding company is a company or firm that owns other companies’ outstanding shares or stock. Holding company allows the elimination of risk for the owner and can allow the ownership and control variety of companies.

Subsidiary company is an entity that is controlled by a separate higher entity. The controlled entity can be a company, corporation, or limited liability company. The controlling entity is known as holding company.

For instance, Media Prima Berhad (MPB) is a holding company. MPB has several subsidiary companies such as Alt Media, Fly FM, TV3, 8TV and so on.

MPB can decide new appointments in the subsidiary companies. For instance, Ahmad Izham Omar will take on the role of Executive Director of 8TV, the station he launched in 2004. As Executive Director, Izham will stay involved in TV’s strategic direction but will leave the day-to-day operations to General Manager Lam Swee Kim who will be reporting to Dato Sri Farid Ridzuan, Group Chief Executive Officer of Media Prima Television Networks. This exercise will also simplify and consolidate the management structure of Media Prima TV Networks. Ahmad Izham Omar will now be able to focus n Alt Media, a Media Prima subsidiary focusing on new media, underlining MPB’s emphasis in the digital space. Izham has been CEO of Alt Media since January 2009. As the result, this fresh changes and new introductions to its senior management team will reinforce the Group’s strong focus to meet the future challenges of media industry.

Based ont this case,there is showing that the relationship between the holding company and subsidiary company. Both companies must have very intimated relationship to help each other in the industry.
Prepared by,
Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

Congratulation to Datuk Lee Chong Wei

Congratulation to Datuk Lee Chong Wei.

He finally won the All England and achieve the another success in his life.

At this moment, all the Malaysian are proud of him and this time really is really is 1 Malaysia.

Wish all the Malaysian can stay peaceful and do not care the races whether Malay, Chinese, India and so on.

By the way, we can work together to establish a successful Malaysia, so that Malaysia can play a role in the world stage in a future like the others country.

Prepared by,
Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

Stop Violence Againts Women

Around 5 days ago, i just wrote a blog about the Malaysia's Domestic Violence Act 521 (1994). I hope that the VAW (Violence Against Women)does not happen in our life anymore. At that time, i never think that this may happen in my surrounding.

Today, i attended a friend's 21st birthday party. and i got a bad new about 1 of my secondary friend's new which is she administered to hospital because of home violence.

This was happen around 3-5days ago. Her brother does not know what is the reason beat her after drunk. Her backbone and body are injured and have bruise. At the time, her brother pinched her neck and she cant breath at all. That time she felt she almost die but luckily she rescued by her family and escape this disaster.

In this case, i felt grateful to the God because i have a happiness family in my life. My parent and brothers are love me so much.

I wish my friend will recover as soon as possible. And hope that she can perk up to face every problem in her future life since she has to face a situation that sue her brother or not.

By the way, i also wish her Happy Birthday because 21st March 2010 is her birthday.

Prepared by,
Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

Malaysia's Domestic Violence Act 521 (1994)

Today is 8th March 2010 which is International Women’s Day (IWD). It is an important day of global celebration of women. In different countries, the center of attention of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women’s economic, political and social achievements.

Every year, 1 of the attention of women’s right in IWD is Violence Against Women (VAW). What is VAM? For instance, be it incest or rape, a husband beating his wife, a female victim of a snatch thief or a manager sexually harassing his secretary or colleague and so on. Most of the cases are happened because men use violence to exert power and control over women.

Malaysia’s Domestic Violence Act 521 (1994) is an act to provide for legal protection in situations of domestic violence and matters incidental thereto. “Domestic violence” means that commission of any of the following acts:

• Willfully or knowingly placing, or attempting to place, the victim in fear of physical injury;
• Causing physical injury to the victim by such act, which is known or ought to have been known would result in physical injury;
• Compelling the victim by force or threat to engage in any conduct or act, sexual or otherwise, from which the victim has a right to abstain;
• Confining or detaining the victim against the victim’s will; or
• Causing mischief or destruction or damage to property with intent to cause or knowing that it is likely to cause distress or annoyance to the victim,

By a person against:

• His or her spouse;
• His or her former spouse;
• A child;
• An incapacitated adult; or
• Any other member of the family.

Although Malaysia has law to protect the women, but VAW is keep on happening within the family. I hope that VAW does not happen in our life anymore since it will destroy our happiness family, disrupt our society and a lot of social problems. This is because women also are human and women also need somebody to respect them.

Prepared by,

Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

My Contract Law Notes

Today, i prepared my business law's mid term. This is the summary notes i done for my revision.

First, i have to memorize the Essential Elements of Contract Law

1) Offer – Section 2a of Contract Act

a) Bilateral Offer

b) Unilateral Offer

Case: Carlill v. The Carbolic Smoke Ball Company Ltd

Invitation to Treat

a) Goods Displayed in the shop

Case: Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain v. Boots Cash Chemist

Case: Fisher v. Bell

b) Advertisement in the newspaper

Case: Mazumder v. A.G. of Sarawak

Case: Partridge v. Crittenden

c) Auction sale

Case: Payne v. Cave

d) Tenders

Case: Spencer v. Harding

2) Acceptance – Section 2b of Contract Act

a) Acceptance must be absolute and unqualified – Section 7a of Contract Law

Case: Hyde v. Wrench (1840)

 Communication of Proposal – Section 4(1) of Contract Act 1950

 Revocation of Offer and Acceptance – Section 5 of Contracts Act

Case: Byrne v. Van Tienhoven

3) Intention to create legal relations

4) Consideration – Section 2d of Contract Act

a) Executory Consideration

Case: Wong Hon Leong v. Noorazman

b) Executed Consideration

c) Past Consideration

Case: Kepong Prospecting Ltd. v. Schmidt

 Without Consideration – Section 26 of Contract Act

Exception:

a) An agreement without consideration is valid if it is expressed in writing

b) Registered (if required under the law)

c) Is made on account of natural love and affection between parties standing in a near relation to each other.

 Inadequacy of Consideration – Explanation 2 of Section 26 of Contract Act

Case: Phang Swee Kim v. Beh I Hock

5) Certainty – Section 30 of Contract Act

Case: Karuppan Chetty v. Suah Thian

6) Capacity – Section 11 of Contract Law

a) Categories of persons lacking legal capacity to contract:

i) Minor

Case: Mohori Bibee v. Dharmodas Ghose

Case: Tan Hee Juan v. Teh Boon Keat

Exception:

(a) Contracts For Necesssaries

Case Government of Malaysia v. Gurcharan Singh

(b) Contracts Of Scholarship – Section 4 of Contracts (Amendment) Act 1976

(c) Contracts Of Insurance – Insurance Act 1963 (Revised 1972)

ii) Of unsound mind

iii) Specifically barred by law

7) Requirement of Legality – Section 24 of Contract Law / Section 66 of Contract Law

Status of Contract

a) Valid & Enforceable

b) Void Contract

c) Voidable Contract

 

8) Free Consent – Section 10 of Contract Act

Free Consent is said to be missing due to existence of 5 factors: (Section 14 of Contract Act)

a) Fraud

Case: Kheng Chwee Lian v. Wong Tak Thong

b) Misrepresentation – Section 18 of Contract Act

Case: With v. O’ Flanagan (1996)

i) Innocent Misrepresentation

ii) Negligent Misrepresentation

iii) Fraudulent Misrepresentation

c) Coercion – Section 15 of Contract Act

Case: Kesarmal v. Valiappa Chettiar

d) Undue influence – Section 16 of Contract Act

Case: Allcord v. Skinner (Apparent Authority)

e) Mistake – Section 21 of Contract Act / Section 23 of Contract Act

The second part of the Contract Law is Discharge of Contracts.

1. Discharge by performance

2. Discharge by frustration

3. Discharge by breach of contract

The last part of the notes is Remedies for Breach of Contracts.

1. Damages

Case: Associated Metal Smelters Ltd. v. Tham Chew Toh

2. Specific Performance

Case: Yeo Long Seng v. Lucky Part (Pty.) Ltd

3. Injunction

Case: Neoh Siew Eng

4. Quantum Meruit

Case: Planche v. Cloburn (1831)

Finally, i hope that this notes able to enhance my understand about Contract law and able to let me score high mark in the mid term test.
Prepared by,

Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

What is Intellectual Property?

Today, I do not have the tutorial class for the business law. Therefore, I have extra time to prepare the interview for my industrial training. For the interview, I have to understand about the trademark, patent and copyright since the firm provide services that related with intellectual property registrations.

Intellectual Property (IP) is a word to refer a number of discrete types of legal monopolies over creations of the mind, both artistic and commercial, and the corresponding fields of law. Owners are granted certain exclusive rights to diversity of intangible assets such as musical, literary, and artistic works, discoveries and inventions, and words, phrases, symbols and designs. The general types of intellectual property include trademarks, copyrights and patents.

Trademark is a unique sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers which the trademark appears originate from a distinctive source, and to distinguish its products or services from those of other entities.

Trademark can divide to 3 categories:

• ™ is used for an unregistered trademark. This is a mark used to promote or brand goods.
• ℠ is used for unregistered service mark. This is a mark used to promote or brand services.
• ® is used for a registered trademark.

Trademark is a type of intellectual property. Normally, trademark can be a name, word, phrase, logo, symbol, design, image or a combination of these elements.

Copyright is the set of exclusive rights granted to the author or creator of an original work, including the right to copy, distribute and adapt the work. The symbol for copyright is ©.

Copyright is also a part of intellectual property along with patents and trademarks.

Patent is a set of exclusive right granted by a state or national government to an inventor or their assignee for a limited period of time in exchange for a public disclosure of an invention.

Under the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights of WTO (World Trade Organization), patents should be available in WTO member states for any inventions, in all fields of technology, and the term of protection available should be the minimum 20years.

We should respect the intellectual property since the individual was put a lot of affords to create the intellectual property. Therefore, we should avoid to buy the pirates products and buy an original products. At the same time, I hope that my interview will be success.

Prepared by,
Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

3 Types Of Business Organizations

Today, the Business Law lecture class was talking about company law. Before go deeply in the company law, we have to understand about the company organization. There are 3 types of the business organizations we were learnt in the class which are:

1. Sole Proprietorship
2. Partnership
3. Corporation

Sole Proprietorship is a least expensive and easiest method to start a business. Why it is easy to start a business? This is because we just need to find a location for the business and open the door to start the business. Before start the business, we have to register a business name and obtain a business license from the government.

There are 2 types of partnership which are limited partnerships and general partnerships. At least 2 people are needed to form a general partnership through a simple oral agreement. Yet, start a partnership with an oral agreement is not recommended. Therefore we have to get legal documents drawn up by an attorney. The advantage for having a legal partnership drawn up is the document will help us in solving any future business disputes with the partner. The disadvantage of partnership is a partner can be held responsible for the actions of other partner in the business in addition to their own actions.

Some of the important information should include in a partnership agreement:

• The compensation for partners.
• How long will the partnership last.
• How will the profits or loss be divided?
• What type of business is it?
• What is each partner investing into the business?
• If the partnership dissolves how will assets be distributed?
• A settlement clause for disputes.
• Provisions for dissolution of the partnership.
• Provisions for future changes to the partnership.
• Define any restrictions to expenditures or authority.
• Provisions for death or incapacity.

The structure of a corporation is complex. It is very expensive to operate compare to sole proprietorship and partnership. Corporate control lies with the person who has ownership of the most shares of stock. For instance, if a single stockholder or a group of stockholders own at least 51% of the stock they can make decisions of policy. Corporations will have annual meetings with the stockholders and regularly scheduled meetings for the board of directors with records kept to document their decisions. The size of the corporation will affect how formally or informally it can be operate. For example, smaller corporations might operate less formally, but still need to keep proper documentation. Stockholders can hold officers of corporations liable for any actions which might have been improper. In those kinds of cases stock ownership is generally where the liability is limited to unless there was a fraud committed. An attorney can help us to decide incorporate as either a C or S type corporation.

Prepared by,
Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

Contract for Insurance

Last week is Chinese New Year Holidays, therefore no lecture and tutorial class for Business Law. And today tutorial class will continue discuss the Law of Contract.

1 of the interesting part of Law of Contract I learnt in the business law class is Contract by Minors.

In Malaysian law, the age of majority is 18 years old. For those are below 18 years old, they should lack legal capacity to contract except:
i. Contracts for necessaries
ii. Contracts of scholarship
iii. Contracts of insurance

Today, I want to talk about Contracts of insurance. Based on my own experience, I bought insurance when I was 15 years old.

The insurance I bought is a medical insurance which I can get compensation if I have any health problem. Every conditions of the contract must be agreed with my family especially my parent. After my family agreed, I only decided to sign the contract and the contract became valid.

Before this, I never think that age will be an important factor to make a contract because I thought that everyone can make a contract. After attend the business law class, I realize a minor can enter into a contract with several conditions. For instance, a minor can enter into insurance contract with the insurance company under Insurance Act 1963 (Revised 1972). However, if the minor is below 16 years old, he or she can only make insurance contract after taking written consent from his or her parents or guardians.

This means that if that time my parent do not consent I bought the insurance, the insurance contract does not legal although I already agreed with the conditions. This is because it was not fulfill the requirement in Malaysian Law. Therefore, the agent of the insurance company should be very careful when they settle the contract because the insurance company lose money and sue by the client if the agent makes any mistake in the contract with a minor.

Prepared by,
Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)

Public Holidays in Malaysia

Today is Chinese New Year which is 1 of the important celebration for Chinese. Most of the people in Malaysia include Malay, Chinese and Indian were went back their hometown. This is because they want to celebrate this wonderful celebration with their family.

Public holidays can be celebration of commemorative day such as Independence Day, or celebration such as Chinese New Year, Hari Raya Puasa and Deepavali, or to celebrate Royalty like Agung’s Birthday.

During the public holidays, a lot of employees do not need to work. This is because they are protected by the law which is Employment Act 1955 Section 60D.

Every employee shall be entitled to paid holiday at his ordinary rate of pay on the following days in any 1 calendar year:

a. On 10 of the gazette public holidays, 4 of which shall be:
i. The National Day
ii. The Birthday of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong
iii. The Birthday of the Ruler or the Yang di-Pertua Negeri of the State or the Federal Territory Day; and
iv. The Workers’ Day; and

b. On any day declared as a public holiday under Section 8 of the Holidays Act 1951

If a public holiday falls on a rest day the working day following immediately the rest day shall be a paid holiday in substitution.

Any employee who absents himself from work on the working day immediately preceding or immediately succeeding a public holiday shall not be entitled to any holiday pay for such holiday.

For any overtime work carried out by an employee on a paid public holiday, the employee shall be paid at a rate which is not less than 3 times his hourly rate of pay.

As a resident in Malaysia, I feel very proud of it because Malaysia has many holidays. And those holidays are having different meaning to celebrate it. This is not every country will has welfare but it is in Malaysia. Therefore, I feel very proud of myself because I am a Malaysian.

For this few days holidays, I wish all the Malaysian have a wonderful holidays with their family and wish all the couples Happy Valentine Day.

Prepared by,
Fong Yok Yan (1071120015)