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5-Year Prison Term for Counterfeiting Burberry in China
On March 13, 2025, the Shanghai Procuratorate Third Branch announced that the Shanghai Third Intermediate People’s Court upheld a 5-year prison term and 2 million RMB fine for the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks belonging to Burberry. In 2021, the defendant, Gong XX, resumed operating an online store “XXX Overseas Shopping” and started selling counterfeit […]
Chinese Court Again Rules AI-Generated Images Are Eligible for Copyright Protection
On March 7, 2025, the Changshu People’s Court announced that it had ruled that images generated with Artificial Intelligence (AI) are eligible for copyright protection. This is believed to be the second case regarding AI-generated images with the Beijing Internet Court ruled similarly in late 2023. In the instant case, Lin XX generated an image of […]
China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate Releases 2025 Work Report – 21,000 People Prosecuted For IP Crimes
On March 8, 2025, China’s Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP) released its 2025 Work Report at the 14th National People’s Congress. Regarding intellectual property, the SPC states that 21,000 people we prosecuted for IP crimes in 2024 and highlighted what is believed to be the trade secret case of Zhang, who was prosecuted under China’s version […]
China’s Supreme People’s Court Work Report – Number of Punitive Damages Awards Up 44%
On March 8, 2025, at the third session of the 14th National People’s Congress, Zhang Jun, President of the Supreme People’s Court (SPC), delivered the SPC’s annual work report. President Zhang highlighted the increase in punitive damages awarded in intellectual property cases including the 640 million RMB award in an electric vehicle trade secret case (although only […]
Supreme People’s Court Presiding Judge Chen Wenquan Elaborates on 640 Million RMB Trade Secret Case
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 […]
Premier Li Qiang Delivers China’s 2025 Work Report – Strengthen the Protection of Intellectual Property
On March 5, 2025, Premier Li Qiang delivered the 2025 government work report on behalf of the State Council at the third session of the 14th National People’s Congress. The work report set up economic and development tasks for 2025 providing insights on how China plans to achieve its economic goals. Excerpts relating to science, […]