Hmm...I feel like the company's reasoning here is almost acceptable. Almost, because I know as a (paid) employee, all of the code I write, any inventions or IP I come up with are the company's property, so it almost makes sense that the company might also want to assert its right to claim that any physical things given or gifted in the course of work-related trips that employees take on company time.

but the article mentions the winner was an intern, not an employee, and I know many interns i've worked with never actually signed an employment agreement, because they dont actually get paid. They sign NDAs but not full on employment agreements, so how can any company treat them like an employee? if I wasn't getting paid, I'd 100% hold my ground like the intern did and take it.

...some mockingly asking whether the firm would've maintained the same tenacity and reimbursed the Intern had he been fined 50,000 RMB at the event instead