Recently, our firm won the second instance of an administrative lawsuit on invalidation declaration of a patent for invention, successfully having the patent fully invalidated by th...
Recently, our firm won the first instance of an administrative litigation case for invalidation of an invention patent, in which it is ruled that the invention patent should be comp...
2025 Global 5G Standard Essential Patent Rankings Released
Intellectual property platform Patently recently released the report of 2025 Global Top 100 Holders of 5G Standard Essential Patents (SEPs), where Huawei retains its top position.
The report details the top 10 SEP holders: Huawei, Qualcomm, Samsung, LG, Ericsson, ZTE, Nokia, OPPO, Datang Telecom, and vivo, and reveals the full list of Top 100, covering the entire industry from emerging players to traditional giants.
Approximately 75% of established 5G SEP families are owned by the top 10 entities. By early 2025, the global total of established 5G SEP families reached 56,000.
China leads in global 5G SEP families sorted by the country of ownership, accounting for 40.8% of the total. (IT Home, January 17, 2025)
Copyright
Wuhan Court Grants AI-Generated Images Copyright Protection and Orders the Infringer to Pay Damages
Who owns the copyright to AI-Generated Images? Wuhan Donghu High-Tech Development Zone Court recently ruled on a copyright infringement case involving AI-generated images.
Wang, an AI-generated content (AIGC) creator, had registered copyright for an image created via an AI tool and posted on Xiaohongshu in May 2024. Over a month later, Wang discovered the defendant, a Wuhan-based tech company, used the same image in an advertisement for an AI painting training camp on Douyin without authorization.
Wang asserted that the defendant infringed his copyright and filed a lawsuit.
The court ruled that the AI-generated image in question, indistinguishable from traditional photos or paintings, obviously belongs to artworks with a certain expression pattern, and should be protected under copyright law. In terms of relevance, Wang’s keyword matched with the elements and the look of the image in question, like a mapping between his creative efforts and the final image. Wang’s creating process-selecting keywords, adjusting parameters, and refining visual effects, reflects his minds, creating method, and aesthetic preference, which finally formed a personalized expression. Thus, the image in question was deemed a product of Wang’s intelligence labor and entitled to protection.
The Wuhan-based tech company established infringement of Wang’s right of information network dissemination for using the image for promotional purposes without permission and was ordered to cease infringement and pay damages.
After considering various factors, the court ruled the defendant to compensate Wang for economic losses and reasonable expenses of CNY 4,000. Neither party appealed the ruling, which has now taken legal effect. (China News Service, February 7, 2025)
Government Affairs
The IP5 Statistics Report 2023 Released (Chinese and English Editions)
The IP5 Statistics Report 2023 was jointly compiled by the European Patent Office (EPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO), the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO), the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), and the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).
The report contains four main chapters:
1）Overview of the IP5 Offices: Updates on recent developments and statistics of the five offices.
2）Worldwide Patenting Activity: The circumstance of global invention patent applications, grants, application flows between countries/regions, and patent families.
3）Patent Activity at the IP5 Offices: A comparative analysis of patent applications and grants from 2022 to 2023 across the five offices.
4）The IP5 Offices and the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT): The various activities of the IP5 Offices that relate to the PCT system.
(CNIPA, January 14, 2025)
Statistics
MCSC’s CNY 477 Million Revenue in Copyright Royalty for 2024
In 2024, by actively seeking right protection, expanding and optimizing the licensing services, the Music Copyright Society of China (MCSC) continued to vigorously develop and optimize licensing services, hitting a historic high of CNY 477 million in copyright royalty revenue, an 11.7% increase compared to 2023 and surpassing the previous record of CNY 442 million set in 2021. Since its establishment, MCSC has collected a total of CNY 4.35 billion in royalties for music copyright holders.
Breakdown of licensing revenue:
Reproduction rights: CNY 21.57 million
Information network dissemination rights: CNY 148.27 million
Performance rights: CNY 249.36 million
Broadcasting rights: CNY 42.32 million
Overseas licensing: CNY 15.96 million (Final figures shall be subjected to the 2024 annual report.)
By the end of 2024, MCSC’s Integrated Music Copyright Service System (iSMC) contained copyright information for approximately 23 million musical works, a 27% increase from the previous year. Developed and maintained under international digital copyright standards, the iSMC provides efficient and convenient digital copyright services for music creators, users, and other industry stakeholders. (Beijing Daily, January 13, 2025)
