On May 26, 2025, China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) released the “Typical cases on the fifth anniversary of the promulgation of the Civil Code” (民法典颁布五周年典型案例) including one generative AI case in which the Beijing Internet Court held that an AI-generated voice infringed a dubber’s personality rights. Note that while China is not a common law country, designating a case as a Guiding Case or Typical Case is somewhat analogous to a U.S. Court marking a case as precedential in that …
China’s Supreme People’s Court Designates Record-Setting Trade Secret Case as a Typical Case
On May 26, 2025, China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) released the “Typical cases on the fifth anniversary of the promulgation of the Civil Code” (民法典颁布五周年典型案例) including one intellectual property case – the record-setting 640 million RMB trade secret case of June 2024. While the decision was a hollow victory as the defendant is insolvent and has not paid any damages, designation as a typical case may encourage lower courts to award higher damages in future trade secret cases. While the …
CNIPA Permanently Suspends Three Chinese Trademark Firms for Bribery
On May 22, 2025, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released three administrative penalty decisions permanently suspending three trademarks firms from accepting trademark work. Per Tianyancha (geoblocked) and a court decision, one firm in particular was found to have bribed a CNIPA trademark examiner from 2013 to 2021 totaling 1.29 million RMB. The firm was criminally convicted and fined 100,000 RMB and the illegal gains of 1,382,680 RMB were seized.
China’s National People’s Congress Passes Promoting the Private Economy Law With IP Provisions
China’s National People’s Congress recently passed the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Promoting the Private Economy (中华人民共和国民营经济促进法) with several intellectual property provisions. The Law goes into effect on May 20, 2025 and aims to “help create a stable, fair, transparent and predictable environment for the development of the private economy,” e.g., to restrict government overreach that hurts private companies such as the 2021 crackdown on the private tutoring industry.