Qianli Technology: Plans to sell the technical intellectual property rights of the P658 to affiliated party Ningbo Research Institute for CNY 345 M
On July 31, cailianshe reported that Qianli Technology (601777.SH) announced that Ruilan Manufacturing, its wholly-owned subsidiary, intends to sign a technology assignment agreement with Ningbo Geely Automobile Research and Development Co., Ltd. to transfer the technical intellectual property rights of the in-development vehicle model to Ningbo Research Institute at the price of CNY 345 million (including tax). The P658 is an extended-range vehicle model, which is independently developed by the company and is still in the development stage. Its R&D progress and technology application are normal. (July 31, 2025, Cailianshe)
Supreme People’s Court Ruling: Xiaomi Wins HEVC/H.265 Video Coding Patent Lawsuit Against GE
In August 2020, GE Video Compression Company sued Xiaomi in Germany for infringing its H.265 standard patent (Patent No. ZL201610412832.3) because Xiaomi had not joined the HEVC Advance patent pool. In response, Xiaomi filed an invalidation of the patent involved with the CNIPA in February 2022. Five months later, the patent was determined to be invalid due to lack of inventiveness. GE successively filed an administrative lawsuit and an appeal. On July 22, 2025, the Supreme People’s Court rejected GE’s claim in the final instance and upheld the patent invalidation decision. (July 25, 2025, IT Home)
Trademark
Customs has Seized CNY 1.83 M Infringing Products Including the Global hit LABUBU this Year
On August 25, Wang Junguo, Vice Minister of the General Administration of Customs, stated at a press conference held by the State Council Information Office that national customs have seized CNY 1.83 million alleged infringing goods this year, including the global popular product LABUBU, and will grant equal protection on the intellectual property rights of both Chinese and foreign entities. During the “14th Five-Year Plan”, customs detained 400 million infringing goods through special operations such as “Longteng”, added 20,000 new right holder registrations with the total number reaching nearly 100,000; and launched the “Internet + Customs” platform and the 12360 hotline to connect with enterprises for rights protection. (August 25, 2025, China Business Journal)
Anti-Unfair Competition
Use of Others’ Enterprise’s Name in Email Addresses Ruled as Unfair Competition
Recently, the Beijing Chaoyang District People’s Court reported a foreign-related case: a German pharmaceutical company sued a Shanghai health product company for infringement. The defendant used the “MERCK” in veterinary drugs, email addresses, and website URLs. The court determined that such acts constituted trademark infringement and unfair competition, and ordered the defendant to pay CNY 650,000 in compensation and publish a statement in newspapers. The second instance upheld the original judgment, and the judgment has taken effect. (July 24, 2025, China Intellectual Property News)
Trade Secret
China’s First Effective Judgment on the Trade Secret Case of Game Planning Configuration Table
The Zhejiang High People’s Court upheld the judgment of the Hangzhou Intermediate People’s Court in the second instance: the configuration table of “Business Tycoon” does not deem as a work, thus dismissing the copyright claim; however, the combination of “non-public fields” in the table belongs to a trade secret. Five companies (A-E) skin-changed version of the game launched within 25 days, and the table structure, values, weights, “anti-infringement” notes, etc. of their game are substantially similar to those of the infringed table. Moreover, these companies failed to fulfill their duty of care despite knowing that the planners were former employees, thus constituting infringement. The court ordered an immediate cessation to the disclosure and deletion of the same information, and the five defendants to jointly and severally compensate CNY 3.4 million. (July 29, 2025, iphouse.cn)
Zunpai Steals Huawei’s Chip Secrets, 14 People Sentenced!
The Shanghai Third Intermediate People’s Court made a first-instance judgment on the Zunpai secret theft case: 14 former employees of HiSilicon were sentenced for copying 40 Wi-Fi chip secret points of Huawei. The chief offender was banned from engaging in related industries for five years, sentenced to six years in prison, and fined CNY 13.5 million. Appraisal showed that the technical identity exceeded 90%, which is a typical case of “team-based secret theft combined with industrialization”. The court’s severe punishment sets a benchmark for the protection of semiconductor intellectual property rights, warns that capital due diligence must prioritize the compliance of technical sources, and helps reshape the industry ecology. (August 14, 2025, Science and Technology Daily)
Copyright
Defendant Finally Sentenced for Unauthorized Production and Sale of Well-Known Anime Figurines such as “Saint Seiya” and “Slam Dunk” -Reproduction is by no means a shield for infringement
Since 2020, Wang and others have produced and sold figurines of “Seiya” and “Sakuragi Hanamichi” in large quantities without authorization from the copyright holders of “Saint Seiya” and “Slam Dunk”, of which the sales exceeding CNY 30 million. The Shanghai Jing’an District People’s Court made a first-instance judgment, determined Wang constituted copyright infringement and sentenced him to 5 years in prison and imposed a fine of CNY 8 million; Wang appealed on the grounds of reproduction. On June 30, the Shanghai Third Intermediate People’s Court rejected the appeal in the final instance, determining that Wang’s act was a reproduction from 2D to 3D without adding new expressions, which does not belong to fair use, and upheld the original judgment. Experts remind that reproduction also requires authorization, and those who reproduce and distribute pirated figurines will be severely punished; the public should choose genuine products to jointly build copyright-friendly ecology. (July 16, 2025, China Intellectual Property News)
Notice of the National Copyright Administration on Issuing the “Opinions on Accelerating the High-Quality Development of the Copyright”
The “Opinions” clearly state that a copyright power with complete rule of law, efficient services, strong protection, and international discourse power will be built by 2030. Key points are as follows:
1. Improved laws: Accelerate the revision of supporting regulations and make up for legislative gaps in emerging fields and local levels.
2. Strict protection: Continue special campaigns such as “Jianwang” (Net Sword), strengthen the governance of key industries, foreign-related cases, and bad faith rights protection, and improve the connection between administrative law enforcement and criminal justice, online dispute mediation, and software legalization.
3. International cooperation: Deeply participate in the formulation of rules by WIPO, RCEP, and other organizations, and establish an overseas risk early warning and rights protection linkage mechanism.
4. Publicity and mobilization: Build the brand of the Copyright Expo, and popularize copyright culture through short videos, campus activities, and social media.
5. Guarantee mechanism: Conduct overall planning under the leadership of the Party Committee, achieve inter-departmental coordination, and provide comprehensive support in terms of funds, policies, talents, and think tanks. (July 23, 2025, National Copyright Administration)
Statistics
Supreme People’s Court Releases Major Data on Judicial Trial in the First Half of 2025
In the first half of 2025, nationwide courts accepted a total of 21.092 million cases of trial and enforcement, a year-on-year decrease of 8.52%. Among them, there were 529,000 first-instance criminal cases, a decrease of 10.4%; 12.372 million first-instance civil and commercial cases, an increase of 38.87%; 175,000 first-instance administrative cases, an increase of 19.67%; and 5.312 million first-time enforcement cases, an increase of 13.62%. There were 2.316 million pre-litigation mediation cases, with 1.493 million successful mediations. There were 307,000 first-instance intellectual property civil cases, an increase of 36.15%; and 20,000 first-instance foreign-related civil and commercial cases, an increase of 52%. The enforcement completion rate and enforcement collection rate remained at the high levels of 41.96% and 54.38% respectively, and the transaction volume of online judicial auctions reached CNY 161.09 billion. (July 21, 2025, Press Office of the Supreme People’s Court)
Intellectual Property Protection by China Customs in the First Half of 2025
In the first half of 2025, national customs seized 11,000 batches of suspected infringing goods, totaling 38.675 million pieces. The General Administration of Customs approved 13,300 intellectual property customs protection registrations and handled 150 general guarantees for intellectual property customs protection. The General Administration of Customs has comprehensively promoted the construction of a smart customs and the “Smart Customs for a Powerful Country” initiative, further carried out the special intellectual property protection operation “Longteng 2025” project to conduct special governance in key areas of infringement; launched the “Special Action for Intellectual Property Protection in Cross-border E-commerce Channels (2025)” to crack down on infringement and violation in cross-border e-commerce channels, strengthen the crackdown on import and export infringement behaviors in “breaking bulk into small lots” and “ant-moving” style, and enhance the ability to prevent and control infringement risks in cross-border e-commerce channels. (July 16, 2025, General Administration of Customs)
