UPDATE: Problem has been corrected – please see the comments.
We’ve all seen it: those Chinese coffee shops with signs and logos that are barely concealed ripoffs from Starbucks. The Chinese search engines that look eerily like Google. Well, this one is right up there, with a Beijing law firm shamelessly ripping off the design of another law firm’s blog. Common paractice, you say? Sure, but the Beijing firm, Lehman, Lee and Xu, might not have realized that a member of the US law firm they violated is the proprietor of the China Law Blog, and he’s not going gentle into that good night. The name of the offending site is Blawg of China and the law firm’s name is Lehman, Lee and Xu. Googlebomb, anyone? (All of those links take you back to the original China Law Blog post, where you can find the actual links to the offending company.)
Please spread the word.
1
By Ivan
So noted by Ivan. I think word will get around to the appropriate places.
April 26, 2006 @ 2:49 am | Comment
2
By Raj
If this is an example of creativity in China, then I think that country is not going to do nearly as well as it could do in the future. That said ripping people off transcends borders, so I won’t give this any more thought.
April 26, 2006 @ 4:09 am | Comment
3
By Emile
Maybe the web designer they hired was particularly lazy.
Or not very imaginative:
– Could you design us a website that’s as cool as that one ?
– okay!
April 26, 2006 @ 5:56 am | Comment
4
By Ivan
Another peciuliarity about this is that the name of one of the partners, “Lehman”, is not Chinese.
So you can’t blame this entirely on the Chinese penchant for plagiarising. If a Western partner in their firm knew or should have known about the plagiarism, that’s rather damning evidence about that law firm’s quality of lawyers. Western lawyers ought to know better.
April 26, 2006 @ 8:17 am | Comment
5
By sri
Lee is not a name for mainland Chinese too.
If he was a mainland Chinese, he would use Li, not Lee.
April 26, 2006 @ 1:37 pm | Comment
6
By Shanghai Slim
The names mean nothing, they could be plagiarised as well. 😉
I’m only half kidding. Does “Sonk” sound like a Chinese name to you?
At work everyone uses “Sonk” computer displays. Funny, the font and font size of the logo is precisely the same as that used on “Sony” products. But that “Sonk”, that’s not mainland Chinese, so, no, it must be someone else … 🙂
April 26, 2006 @ 9:58 pm | Comment
7
By zhuanjia
These guys have maybe picked up the habit of plagirism from the China Daily, where they run a weekly column called Lehman Law:
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2006-01/27/content_516116.htm
Why don’t you write to Lehman Law’s advice column (asklehman@lehmanlaw.com) and ask what steps you should take when another firm rips off your website?
April 27, 2006 @ 12:53 am | Comment
8
By Legal Eagle
Lehman Lee and Xu are well known in expatriate circles in China. This is not the first time their name has come up in connection with nefarious activities.
April 27, 2006 @ 12:59 am | Comment
9
By richard
Zhuanjia, that’s a brilliant suggestion.
Oh, and keep clicking the links in the post above to make the googlebomb work.
April 27, 2006 @ 6:34 am | Comment
10
By monkey
Legal Eagle posted: “Lehman Lee and Xu are well known in expatriate circles in China. This is not the first time their name has come up in connection with nefarious activities. ”
More INFO please!!!
April 27, 2006 @ 12:20 pm | Comment
11
By Marc
Lehman Lee & Xu had trouble because of meta tagging on their site a few years ago. I guess, they just have bad luck with their web designers, it is hard to find reliable Chinese ones. They already changed the design of their blog.
May 11, 2006 @ 6:49 am | Comment
12
By Wang Weimin
I enjoy the postings FYI Edward Lehman was selected as one of the 30 most famous lawyers in China for the years 2005 and 2006 by Asian Legal Business Magazine ( a chinese and english language publication widely circulated to the Chinese & forign bar). He has been in China for the past 20 years, speaks Chinese like a native, was distiguished as one of the lading IP lawyers in the country by Who’s Who legal and his firm was ranked best Chinese law firm in China by Asian Law & practice Magazine (above Jun He.King & Wood & Hiawen & partners) With 218 lawyers and 300 and certain staff outsourcing IT matters anything can happen. Have you seen their site with over 500o pages, the thing is nothing short of excellent!
More than 5,000 clients in 120 jursidictions use them so they must be doing something right.
May 30, 2006 @ 11:06 am | Comment
13
By John
well written, wang. LEHMAN, LEE & XU http://www.lehmanlaw.com are an impressive Chinese law firm with six offices in the country, the IP practice is IMHO best in China, the represent one of our customers Motorola for all of Asia. Ed Lehman was rated the best IP attorney in the country along with “Raider” Joe Simone at Baker & Mackenzie, I think Ed’s Chinese is excellent but Joe’s is more hip for sure. Good to see a couple of Americans (“Educated-Ed” Lehman and Joe) keeping it together for IP issues regarding foreign companies in China. BTW, I looked at the site and they do not look even vaguely similar what gives?
May 30, 2006 @ 11:19 am | Comment
14
By Laurentius Metaal
John,
The site was immediately changed after the news reached our firm. It is pretty hard to find out through a websearch if a new site is a ripped one since it is not possible to search for graphics. We learned a valuable lesson and like a good firm should do acted promptly. We have apologized to Harris & Moure about this incident and the matter has been put to rest. The initial comments are also interesting since the internet community immediately shouts that this was done on purpose. The reality is a lot more simplistic. Obviously a lot of webdesigns are going to look quite similar with so many sites added daily and general layout similarities are unavoidable at some point. But indeed; Our old blog was a copy of the Harris & Moure blog. Reason enough to immediately shut it down and order a design change as soon as the news reached us. We have our own designers now.
June 1, 2006 @ 11:16 am | Comment
15
By Laurentius Metaal
John,
The site was immediately changed after the news reached our firm. It is pretty hard to find out through a websearch if a new site is a ripped one since it is not possible to search for graphics. We learned a valuable lesson and like a good firm should do acted promptly. We have apologized to Harris & Moure about this incident and the matter has been put to rest. The initial comments are also interesting since the internet community immediately shouts that this was done on purpose. The reality is a lot more simplistic. Obviously a lot of webdesigns are going to look quite similar with so many sites added daily and general layout similarities are unavoidable at some point. But indeed; Our old blog was a copy of the Harris & Moure blog. Reason enough to immediately shut it down and order a design change as soon as the news reached us. We have our own designers now.
June 1, 2006 @ 11:16 am | Comment
16
By China Law Blog
Dan Harris here, of Harris & Moure. Lehman Lee’s Blog looked just like my firm’s website, not my blog. I e-mailed them to point this out to them, but they apparently never got the e-mail. As soon as Lehman was alerted to the problem, they IMMEDIATELY fixed it. I actually think their blog looks better now than it did.
I have no doubt that this whole thing was unintentional and I certainly harbor no ill feelings towards Lehman and I do not believe anyone should hold this against them.
June 9, 2006 @ 9:57 pm | Comment