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Haisheng LIU
Attorney-at-Law

 
In the digital wave, data has become a key factor of production, driving the development of the economy and society like oil and electricity, with its value increasing day by day. Data intellectual property registration and data trading have also become key paths to unlock the new value of data, which have a profound impact on corporate innovation, industrial upgrading, and high-quality economic development. This article will briefly introduce the mechanism of data intellectual property registration and data trading in China based on current Chinese laws and regulations and practical status for reference.

I. Data Intellectual Property Registration: Consolidating the Foundation of Data Rights

The concept of “data intellectual property” does not exist in China’s current legal system, and the provisions of the Civil Code on the subject matter of intellectual property rights do not directly specify “data” as the object of intellectual property protection. The author searched for relevant policy documents and found that the term “data intellectual property” was first mentioned in the “Outline for the Construction of an Intellectual Property Powerhouse (2021-2035)” issued by the State Council in September 2021, which stated the need to “research and build data intellectual property protection rules.” Subsequently, the China National Intellectual Property Administration determined 17 provinces and cities, including Beijing and Shanghai, to conduct local pilot implementation for data intellectual property.

In practice, local pilot areas have issued relevant policy regulations on data intellectual property registration, and the definitions of data intellectual property are basically similar. According to these policy regulations, the object of data intellectual property protection usually needs to meet four elements, namely data or data sets that meet the attributes of “lawfully obtained,” “processed according to certain rules,” “having practical value,” and “intellectual creation”.

2.Status and Registration Process of Data Intellectual Property Registration

(1) Status of Data Intellectual Property Registration

Data intellectual property registration is an important exploration by China in the protection and utilization of data elements. According to the work report by Shen Changyu, the head of the China National Intellectual Property Administration, at the 2025 National Intellectual Property Administration Conference on January 7, 2025, 17 localities including Shanghai and Zhejiang have issued data intellectual property registration methods, with more than 22,000 certificates issued in total, and these have been successfully applied in scenarios such as judicial adjudication and asset listing. Looking at the development trend, data intellectual property registration is expected to be promoted and implemented uniformly across the country in the future.

(2) Data Intellectual Property Registration Process

Natural persons, legal persons, and non-legal person organizations holding relevant data can all apply for registration. According to the “Interim Measures for the Registration and Certification of Data Product Intellectual Property in Shanghai,” the process of applying for data product intellectual property registration in Shanghai is briefly described as follows:

A. Registration Application

Applicants need to prepare the following materials and submit the application online through the Shanghai Data Product Intellectual Property Management Platform (https://sjdj.chinadep.net:8682/#/home/view).

a. Data product intellectual property registration application form;

b. Overview of the data product;

c. Explanation of substantive processing and innovative labor on the data;

d. Application scenario description;

e. Statement of ownership of data product intellectual property rights and commitment that the data product does not involve state secrets and does not infringe on others’ personal information and intellectual property rights;

f. Data product information.

B. Registration Review

The Shanghai pilot registration implements formal and substantive reviews. In practice, the data or data products applied for registration first undergo an initial screening by an artificial intelligence plagiarism detection system, followed by manual formal review, first substantive review, and second substantive review. For some difficult applications or applications with disputes, expert meetings will be regularly organized for collective review.

C. Announcement and Objection Procedure

After the review is passed, the registration information is announced on the platform for 15 days. Interested parties who have evidence that the registration belongs to the circumstances not to be registered may raise objections within the public announcement period. The Shanghai Intellectual Property Office will complete the objection review and make a decision within 60 days (which can be extended by 60 days in special circumstances).

D. Registration and Issuing Certificate

If there are no objections at the end of the announcement period or the objections are not established, the data product information will be recorded on the blockchain through blockchain technology, and a registration certificate will be issued; the certificate is valid for 3 years and can be renewed for free before the expiration date.

It should be particularly noted that from the regulations and practices issued by the pilot localities that have been made public, regarding the review of data intellectual property registration applications, most pilot localities currently only conduct formal reviews. Only Shanghai, Shandong, and Hunan require substantive reviews, and Shanghai is currently the only region that does not have pre-registration certification, notarization, or other preconditions. Therefore, it also attracts many enterprises from other places to apply for registration in Shanghai.

The author believes that this approach in Shanghai reduces the time and economic costs of applying for registration. Moreover, data product intellectual property registration that has undergone substantive review will also increase the market players’ trust in the quality and effectiveness of the registration, which is more conducive to promoting the realization of data value and circulation and transaction.

(3) Legal Effect of Data Intellectual Property Registration and Data Rights Protection Path

In judicial practice, Chinese courts have confirmed through precedents the evidentiary effect of the “Data Intellectual Property Registration Certificate” on data holding. In the Datatang case (Beijing Intellectual Property Court (2024) Jing 73 Civil Final No. 546 Civil Judgment), the court held that the “Data Intellectual Property Registration Certificate” obtained by Datatang Company for the involved data set can serve as preliminary evidence that Data Tang Company has relevant property interests in the involved data set and that the collection behavior or data source of the involved data set is lawful. In the absence of contrary evidence, the above facts can be recognized accordingly.

This precedent provides an important basis for the judicial protection of data rights and affirms the value and necessity of data intellectual property registration. In addition, based on practical experience, the author summarizes the data rights protection paths into the following three scenarios:

A. If the data set constitutes intellectual property rights such as copyright or patents, the enterprise's legally held data rights could be protected according to the relevant intellectual property laws;

B. If the data set does not constitute intellectual property rights but constitute trade secrets of the enterprise, the enterprise’s legally held data rights could be protected as trade secrets according to Anti-Unfair Competition Law;

C. If neither of the above situations is met, the enterprise could protect its data rights by resolving to the principle of Article 2 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, which provides that “operators shall follow the principles of voluntariness, equality, fairness, and good faith in production and business activities and abide by laws and business ethics.”

II. Data Trading: Activating the Circulation of Data Value

According to the provisions of China’s “Data Security Law” and local data regulations, natural persons, legal persons, and non-legal person organizations can legally conduct data trading activities, and the state and localities encourage data trading activities.
 
1. Data Trading Models

Data trading refers to the transaction between data suppliers and purchasers, with specific forms of data as the object and currency or other equivalents as the consideration. There are usually three types of data trading models in practice:

A. Direct Trading Model

This is also known as off-exchange trading in the industry, where data supplier and purchaser negotiate the type, purchase period, and other contents of data products or services by themselves, with strong flexibility.

B. Unilateral Trading Model

Data suppliers process their own data or data collected through purchasing, web crawling technology, etc., into standardized data packages or databases through classification, summarization, archiving, and other preliminary processing, and then sell or provide data services to a large number of data purchasers.

C. Third-Party Trading Model

Also known as on-exchange trading, this refers to the situation where data suppliers and purchasers conduct transactions through a third-party data trading service platform. The platform formulates unified trading rules, processes, and standards, and reviews, assesses, and escrows the trading data to promote the compliant circulation and trading of data.

2. Status of Data Trading

According to statistics, the overall market size of China’s data trading was about 87.68 billion yuan in 2022, of which the on-exchange trading scale was about 4 billion yuan, accounting for less than 5%. The data trading between industries or enterprises is the mainstream model of the current data trading market.

According to the “2024 China Data Trading Market Research and Analysis Report” jointly released by Frost Sullivan (Beijing) Consulting Co., Ltd., Leadleo Information Technology Nanjing Co., Ltd., the National Engineering Laboratory for Big Data Circulation and Trading Technology, and Shanghai Data Exchange, the market size of China’s data trading was about 153.7 billion yuan in 2023, and it is expected to reach 715.9 billion yuan by 2030, showing the strong growth momentum of China’s data trading market.

3. General Process of Data Trading - Taking Direct Trading Model as an Example

(1) Demand Connection

Data purchasers clarify the type, scope, quality requirements, etc., of the data they need, and seek potential data suppliers through various channels. Suppliers display their data products or services, and both sides communicate on data details to determine the intention to trade.

(2) Data Assessment

To determine the value and applicability of the data, both parties need to assess the data. The assessment includes the accuracy, legality, completeness, timeliness, coverage, etc., of the data. If necessary, both parties can also choose to entrust professional data assessment agencies to provide a reasonable valuation range for the data, which will serve as a reference for pricing transactions.

(3) Contract Signing

After confirmation of the important matters such as data ownership, transaction price, data delivery method, usage rights or authorization scope, and liability for breach of contract, the parties can sign a data trading contract.

(4) Data Delivery and Acceptance

The data supplier delivers the data to the purchaser in the manner agreed upon in the contract, such as through a secure data transmission interface or encrypted storage media. After receiving the data, the purchaser accepts it according to the quality standards agreed upon in the contract.

4. Risk Warnings and Advices for Data Trading

Due to the complexity of data sources and content, as well as the continuous improvement and updating of laws, regulations, and policies in the field of data security supervision, the parties involved in data trading may face some risks and compliance requirements, which may have a significant impact on data trading.
 
(1) Data Security and Privacy Leakage Risks

Effective security protection measures should be taken in the collection, transmission, storage, and sharing of data to prevent data from being illegally accessed, tampered with, or leaked. If the data contains personal information such as names, contact numbers, addresses, or even sensitive information such as health conditions and financial information, and if it is not strictly authorized or anonymized during data trading, it may seriously infringe on personal privacy and thus trigger relevant legal responsibilities.

(2) Data Quality Risks

Data quality is a key factor in whether the transaction can proceed smoothly. Inaccurate, incomplete, outdated, or misleading data may lead to incorrect decisions by the trading parties, thereby causing transaction failure or decision-making mistakes.

(3) Data Infringement Risks

With the continuous improvement and updating of China’s data protection laws and regulations, such as the “Data Security Law” and the “Personal Information Protection Law,” data collection and trading need to meet many compliance requirements. Violations may result in legal liabilities.

Accordingly, the author suggests that data supplies and purchasers should clearly stipulate data ownership, data security, data usage purposes and scope, statements and warranties regarding the authenticity, accuracy, completeness, legality, non-infringement, etc., of the data, as well as related liability for breach of contract in the data trading contract. It is also advisable to seek external professional lawyers to draft or review data trading contracts.

Moreover, as introduced earlier, to ensure the legality of data sources and data rights ownership, data suppliers can actively consider applying for data intellectual property registration and obtaining the “Data Intellectual Property Registration Certificate.” In the negotiation stage of data trading, both parties can quickly establish a trusting relationship, thereby greatly reducing transaction costs and promoting the development of data trading.

III. Summary

In summary, data intellectual property registration and data trading are closely linked and complementary. On the one hand, data intellectual property registration provides a preliminary basis for data trading rights. Data that has been registered allows trading parties to avoid concerns about the legality of data sources and ownership disputes during transactions, thereby significantly increasing the security and efficiency of transactions. On the other hand, the activity of data trading further highlights the importance of data intellectual property registration.