On January 28, 2026, the Intellectual Property Court (IPC) of China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) released the 2025 Annual Report of the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People’s Court (最高人民法院知识产权法庭年度报告). The Report included a statistics section reproduced below. The IPC received 449 new cases in 2025 involving foreign parties and Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, accounting for 16.9% of all new cases. Of these, 431 were new cases involving foreign parties, accounting for 16.2% of all new cases; 18 were new cases involving Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, accounting for 0.7% of all new cases; 190 were new civil cases and 259 were new administrative cases. A total of 492 cases involving foreign parties and Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan were concluded, a year-on-year increase of 15.8%, accounting for 15.6% of the total number of concluded cases.
Unfortunately, the Report does not include average damages awarded or the victory rate of foreigners versus Chinese parties. However, the text of the Report does mention punitive damages awarded.
A translation of the statistics section (minus charts) follows. The original text with charts is available here (Chinese only).
I. Basic Case Data
(I) 2025
A total of 4,679 technology-related intellectual property and antitrust cases were accepted (2,663 new cases and 2,016 pending cases), 3,146 cases were concluded, and 1,533 cases remained pending. Compared with 2024, the court’s current jurisdiction saw 2,636 new cases, a year-on-year increase of 0.9%, and 2,959 cases concluded, a year-on-year increase of 8.5%.
(II) 2019-2025
Since its establishment on January 1, 2019, the court has accepted a total of 24,602 technology-related intellectual property and antitrust cases, and concluded 23,069 cases.
II. Civil Case Classification Data
(I) 2025
The court received 972 new civil second-instance substantive cases. These included 674 cases of invention and other patent disputes, 238 cases of plant variety disputes, 32 cases of antitrust disputes, 3 cases of integrated circuit layout design disputes, and 25 other disputes.
(II) 2019-2025
The court accepted a total of 13,918 civil second-instance substantive cases. These included 7,860 cases of infringement of invention and utility model patent rights, 1,194 cases of patent application rights and patent ownership disputes, 842 cases of plant variety rights disputes, 20 cases of integrated circuit layout design disputes, 355 cases of trade secret disputes, 2,711 cases of computer software disputes, 357 cases of technology-related intellectual property contract disputes, 178 cases of antitrust civil disputes, and 401 other disputes.
III. Administrative Case Classification Data
(I) 2025
The court received 1,292 new administrative second-instance substantive cases. Among these, there were 223 administrative disputes concerning the review of rejected invention patent applications, 393 administrative disputes concerning the invalidation of invention patents, 19 administrative disputes concerning the review of rejected utility model patent applications, 397 administrative disputes concerning the invalidation of utility model patents, 198 administrative disputes concerning the invalidation of design patents, 3 administrative disputes concerning plant varieties, 1 administrative dispute concerning integrated circuit layout designs, 16 administrative disputes concerning monopolies, and 42 disputes concerning administrative rulings, etc.
(II) 2019-2025
The court accepted a total of 7023 substantive administrative second-instance cases. Among these, there were 1767 administrative disputes concerning the review of rejected invention patent applications, 1931 administrative disputes concerning the invalidation of invention patents, 183 administrative disputes concerning the review of rejected utility model patent applications, 1746 administrative disputes concerning the invalidation of utility model patents, 14 administrative disputes concerning the review of rejected design patent applications, 828 administrative disputes concerning the invalidation of design patents, 14 administrative disputes concerning plant variety rights, 4 administrative disputes concerning integrated circuit layout designs, 81 administrative disputes concerning monopolies, and 455 disputes concerning administrative rulings, etc.
IV. Data on Case Closure Methods
(I) Overall Cases in 2025
The court closed a total of 3146 cases, with 1957 cases closed by upholding the original judgment, accounting for 62.2%; 531 cases closed by withdrawal (including withdrawal of appeal and withdrawal of lawsuit, the same below), accounting for 16.9%; 159 cases closed by mediation (issuing a civil mediation agreement, the same below), accounting for 5.1%; 471 cases closed by reversal of judgment, accounting for 15.0%; and 28 cases closed by other methods, accounting for 0.9%; there were no cases remanded for retrial. (II) Civil Cases in 2025
Of the 1281 civil second-instance substantive cases concluded by the court, 465 cases were concluded by upholding the original judgment, accounting for 36.3%; 320 cases were concluded by withdrawal of the lawsuit, accounting for 25.0%; 159 cases were concluded through mediation, accounting for 12.4%; and 337 cases were concluded by reversing the original judgment, accounting for 26.3%. There were no cases remanded for retrial.
(III) Administrative Cases in 2025
Of the 1473 administrative second-instance substantive cases concluded by the court, 1212 cases were concluded by upholding the original judgment, accounting for 82.3%; 137 cases were concluded by withdrawal of the lawsuit, accounting for 9.3%; 117 cases were concluded by reversing the original judgment, accounting for 7.9%; and 7 cases were concluded through other means, accounting for 0.5%. There were no cases remanded for retrial.
(IV) Overall Cases from 2019-2025
The court concluded a total of 23069 cases. 13221 cases were concluded by upholding the original judgment, accounting for 57.3%; 4082 cases were concluded by withdrawal of the lawsuit, accounting for 17.7%; 1807 cases were concluded through mediation, accounting for 7.8%; 124 cases were remanded for retrial, accounting for 0.5%; 3384 cases were concluded by reversing the original judgment, accounting for 14.7%; and 451 cases were concluded through other means, accounting for 2.0%.
(V) Civil Cases from 2019-2025
Of the 13,263 civil second-instance cases concluded by the court, 5,311 cases were concluded by upholding the original judgment, accounting for 40.0%; 3,548 cases were concluded by withdrawal of the lawsuit, accounting for 26.8%; 1,449 cases were concluded through mediation, accounting for 10.9%; 119 cases were remanded for retrial, accounting for 0.9%; 2,775 cases were concluded by reversing the original judgment, accounting for 20.9%; and 61 cases were concluded through other means, accounting for 0.5%.
(VI) Administrative Cases from 2019-2025
Of the 6,195 administrative second-instance cases concluded by the court, 5,242 cases were concluded by upholding the original judgment, accounting for 84.6%; 484 cases were concluded by withdrawal of the lawsuit, accounting for 7.8%; 5 cases were remanded for retrial, accounting for 0.1%; 450 cases were concluded by reversing the original judgment, accounting for 7.3%; and 14 cases were concluded through other means, accounting for 0.2%.
V. Cases Involving Foreign Parties and Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan
(I) 2025
The court received 449 new cases involving foreign parties and Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, accounting for 16.9% of all new cases. Of these, 431 were new cases involving foreign parties, accounting for 16.2% of all new cases; 18 were new cases involving Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, accounting for 0.7% of all new cases; 190 were new civil cases and 259 were new administrative cases. A total of 492 cases involving foreign parties and Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan were concluded, a year-on-year increase of 15.8%, accounting for 15.6% of the total number of concluded cases.
(II) 2019-2025
The court handled a total of 2,871 cases involving foreign parties and Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, accounting for 11.7% of all cases. Among these cases, 2,546 were foreign-related cases, accounting for 10.3% of all cases; 325 cases involved Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan, accounting for 1.3% of all cases; a total of 1,484 civil cases and 1,387 administrative cases were accepted. A total of 2,339 foreign-related and Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan-related cases were concluded (including 2,046 foreign-related cases), accounting for 10.1% of all concluded cases.
The foreign-related cases accepted by the court mainly came from EU countries such as Germany, France, and Italy, and the US accounting for 37% and 31% respectively; cases involving Asian regions mainly came from Japan and South Korea, accounting for 14% and 3% respectively.
