High-tech disputes test courts' judicial expertise

China has experienced a significant surge in intellectual property cases over the past five years, prompting judges to adopt a range of measures to strengthen protections for innovators and support high-quality development, officials from the Supreme People's Court said.

Zhou Jiahai, head of the Supreme People's Court's Research Office, told a news conference on Saturday that as the innovation-driven development strategy has deepened, intellectual property has increasingly become a strategic national resource and a core element of international competitiveness. That shift has led to a rapid rise in IP disputes, he said.

Chinese courts resolved more than 2.5 million first-instance IP cases from 2021 to 2025, a 64.44 percent increase compared with the previous five-year period, Zhou said. Disputes in high-tech and cutting-edge sectors have surged, involving large technology companies, small and medium-sized enterprises, research institutes and foreign firms.

"As fields such as new energy, artificial intelligence, biopharmaceuticals, core internet technologies and the digital economy rapidly develop, related IP cases have also grown,"Zhou said, noting that the cases have added complexity to judicial processes, particularly in determining rights and establishing technical facts.

Lang Guimei, deputy chief judge of the Supreme People's Court's Third Civil Division, underscored the importance of properly handling technological IP disputes, saying "technological innovation is crucial for achieving Chinese modernization". In 2025, courts nationwide concluded 63,971 first-instance civil cases involving technological IP, she said. Of those, 51,211 were patent cases, 1,279 involved new plant varieties and 1,079 concerned trade secrets.

"These cases predominantly involved high-tech industries such as 5G communications, AI, biomedicine, seed technology and advanced manufacturing," Lang said.

To strengthen protection for technological innovation, courts have worked to formulate judicial interpretations clarifying rules and policies. Punitive damages were applied in 505 IP cases in 2025, resulting in compensation totaling 1.8 billion yuan ($262.5 million), she said.

In addition, the Supreme People's Court issued a judicial interpretation in 2025 on criminal protection of IP rights, lowering the threshold for criminalizing trade secret infringements and increasing penalties."These measures have more effectively curbed and combated serious IP infringements, demonstrating a stronger judicial commitment to safeguarding IP rights," Lang said.

To improve the quality and professionalism of IP trials, the court has streamlined procedures by centralizing adjudication of technology-related IP and antitrust appeal cases. By the end of 2025, it had incorporated 1,327 technical investigators into its expert database for handling IP disputes, helping improve the efficiency of resolving complex, technology-related cases, she said.

caoyin@chinadaily.com.cn