On March 7, 2025, Judge CHEN Wenquan, the Supreme People’s Court judge that presided over the case that yielded the largest intellectual property damages in China’s history, elaborated on the case. In decision （2023）最高法知民终1590号 released June 14, 2024, the SPC applied 2X punitive damages on appeal in a dispute between two well-known (and unnamed) domestic automotive companies regarding new energy vehicle chassis technical trade secrets that were misappropriated in a personnel poaching scheme. The plaintiff is believed to be Geely …
Category: Case
Guangdong Higher People’s Court: 107 Million RMB Settlement in Pokémon Copyright and Unfair Competition Case
On February 21, 2025, Guangdong’s Higher People’s Court announced a settlement of 107 million RMB in favor of The Pokémon Company for copyright infringement and unfair competition. Pokémon had sued Guangzhou Mai Network Technology Co., Ltd., Huo Network Technology Co., Ltd. and others for copyright infringement and unfair competition disputes over the game “Pokémon: Remastered” in December 2021. Pokémon requested 500 million RMB and was awarded 107 million RMB in the first instance at the Shenzhen Intermediate People’s Court. The Guangdong High …
Supreme People’s Court: 82 Million RMB Verdict Against ByteDance for Copyright Infringement and Trade Secret Misappropriation
On February 12, 2025, Beijing Meishe Network Technology Co., Ltd. (北京美摄网络科技有限公司) announced that China’s Supreme People’s Court ruled against ByteDance for copyright infringement and trade secret misappropriation awarding Meishe 82.668 million RMB. Meishe alleged that ByteDance’s Douyin (Chinese version of TikTok) infringed the copyright of Meishe’s SDK software. Several other ByteDance products also allegedly infringed.
Hangzhou Internet Court: Generative AI Output Infringes Copyright
On February 10, 2025, the Hangzhou Internet Court announced that an unnamed defendant’s generative artificial intelligence’s (AI) generating of images constituted contributory infringement of information network dissemination rights, and ordered the defendant to immediately stop the infringement and compensate for economic losses and reasonable expenses of 30,000 RMB.