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 the non-monetary portion of the judgement has been satisfied as the unnamed defendant is bankrupt). Punitive damages were awarded in 460 cases of malicious infringement with serious circumstances, an increase of 44.2% year-on-year. Overall, 494,000 intellectual property cases were concluded, an increase of 0.9% year-on-year.

Excerpts related to intellectual property from the work report follow.

II. Serving high-quality development with strict and fair justice

Serve the construction of a unified national market. Strengthen anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition judicial work. The SPC issued judicial interpretations on anti-monopoly civil litigation, and identified 31 cases of monopoly, a year-on-year increase of 2.1 times. 10,000 cases of unfair competition such as infringement of trade secrets and collusion in bidding were concluded, a year-on-year increase of 0.7%. In one case, Sun and others set up a peer company in anonymity and misappropriated the technical secrets of the original unit for more than 10 years. The court applied punitive damages and ordered the company and Sun and others to pay joint compensation of 160 million RMB.

Serve the development of new quality productivity. 494,000 intellectual property cases were concluded, an increase of 0.9% year-on-year. Serve the key core technology research and industrial development. Strengthen judicial protection of intellectual property rights in the fields of new generation information technology, high-end equipment, biomedicine, new materials, etc., and promote the transformation of innovative achievements. In the six years since its establishment, the Intellectual Property Court of the Supreme People’s Court has concluded nearly 20,000 technical intellectual property appeals, among which the number and proportion of cases involving strategic emerging industries have increased year by year, reaching 1,233 in 2024, accounting for 32.3%. Properly handle cases involving artificial intelligence disputes in accordance with the law, support the legal application of artificial intelligence; punish infringements using artificial intelligence technology, and promote standardized and orderly development. Strictly protect innovation in accordance with the law. Punitive damages were applied to 460 cases of malicious infringement with serious circumstances, an increase of 44.2% year-on-year. The “new energy vehicle chassis” technical secret infringement case was heard in accordance with the law, and punitive damages of 640 million RMB were awarded. The infringer was ordered to stop the infringement, and the calculation standard of delayed performance fee was clarified to encourage its automatic performance. Explore the information disclosure mechanism of related cases and punish those who disrupt the innovation order in the name of rights protection. A company maliciously registered and hoarded trademarks in large quantities based on the business names and main identifying parts of trademarks that were used previously by others, and made profits by suing others for infringement. The Hunan Court ruled to dismiss the lawsuit and imposed a fine of 100,000 RMB as punishment.

Serving the expansion of high-level opening-up.

…In a patent infringement case, based on an urgent application by a domestic science and technology enterprise, the court made the first behavior preservation ruling in the field of intellectual property rights in China in accordance with the law with an anti-antisuit injunction, supporting the right holder’s legitimate rights protection. Subsequently, Chinese and foreign parties reached a package settlement on 16 lawsuits involving 6 courts at home and abroad. 

Work Plan for 2025

First, seek progress while maintaining stability, and perform duties and responsibilities in line with the promotion of Chinese-style modernization.

…Strengthen anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition justice. Guarantee innovation and creation in accordance with the law, and help develop new quality productivity. 

Third, strict management and loving care, forging a loyal, clean and responsible iron army of the courts in the new era.

…Build a professional trial personnel pool for intellectual property, finance, bankruptcy, foreign-related, maritime, environmental resources, etc., improve the medium- and long-term training plan for outstanding personnel, and jointly cultivate socialist rule of law talents with universities.

The full text is available here (Chinese only).