On April 20, 2026, China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) released the Implementation Plan for Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property Rights by People’s Courts (2026-2030) (人民法院知识产权司法保护实施方案(2026—2030年)) setting out the framework for IP adjudication during the 15th Five-Year Plan period. The Implementation Plan identifies technology sectors targeted for strengthened judicial protection, including integrated circuits, industrial machine tools, high-end instruments, basic software, advanced materials, biomanufacturing, high-end equipment, aerospace, and new energy. It addresses adjudication rules for artificial intelligence matters, including the legal attributes of AI-generated content, use of training corpora, and allocation of responsibility among AI developers, operators, and users. The Plan also addresses data rights adjudication (covering public data, enterprise data, and personal information data), trade secret protection and non-compete clause enforcement in talent competition, and regulation of malicious trademark registration and “brand imitation.”
On enforcement, the Plan calls for expanded use of injunctive relief, implementation of the punitive damages system for willful and repeat infringement, and tighter coordination among civil, administrative, and criminal procedures, including exploration of incidental civil litigation within IP criminal cases. Procedural reforms include research toward a dedicated IP procedural law, refinement of evidence disclosure and preservation rules, improvements to the patent infringement/invalidation interface, and expansion of the technical investigator system. The Plan further addresses foreign-related IP adjudication, extraterritorial application of Chinese law, cross-border and parallel litigation, and sanctions for abnormal mass litigation, false litigation, and malicious litigation.
A translation follows. The original text is available here (Chinese only).
Implementation Plan for Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property Rights by People’s Courts ( 2026-2030 )
The 15th Five-Year Plan period was a crucial period for China to lay a solid foundation and exert comprehensive efforts to basically achieve socialist modernization. Intellectual property rights, as a strategic resource for national development and a core element of international competitiveness, played an increasingly prominent role. To implement the “Opinions of the CPC Central Committee on Strengthening Judicial Work in the New Era,” comprehensively improve the level of intellectual property judicial protection by the people’s courts, and continuously promote the modernization of the intellectual property trial system and trial capabilities, this implementation plan is formulated in accordance with the “Outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development of the People’s Republic of China,” the “Outline for Building a Strong Intellectual Property Nation (2021-2035 ) ,” and in light of the actual work of the people’s courts in intellectual property judicial protection.
I. General Requirements
(I) Guiding Principles. We will adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, thoroughly study and implement Xi Jinping’s thought on the rule of law, thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th CPC National Congress and its subsequent plenary sessions, deeply understand the decisive significance of the “two establishments,” strengthen the “Four Consciousnesses,” firm up the “Four Confidences,” and achieve the “Two Upholds,” establish and practice a correct view of performance, comprehensively improve the quality and efficiency of intellectual property trials, improve the intellectual property judicial protection system, deepen reforms in the field of intellectual property trials, strengthen the construction of the intellectual property trial team, and provide strong judicial services and guarantees for building a strong intellectual property country, a world-class science and technology power, and a modern socialist country in all respects.
(II) Basic Principles. We uphold the absolute leadership of the Party, resolutely safeguard the authority of the CPC Central Committee and its centralized and unified leadership, and ensure that the Party’s leadership permeates all aspects and the entire process of the people’s courts’ intellectual property judicial protection work, providing a fundamental guarantee for the development of the intellectual property adjudication cause. We adhere to the principle of putting the people first, taking the satisfaction of the people’s needs for fair and efficient intellectual property protection as our starting point and end goal, strictly and impartially administering justice, encouraging innovation and creativity, promoting the efficient transformation and application of scientific and technological achievements, and effectively improving the effectiveness of intellectual property judicial protection. We uphold reform and innovation, focusing on key areas and crucial links in intellectual property judicial protection, continuously deepening institutional and mechanism reforms and practical explorations, and constantly enhancing the driving force for the development of the intellectual property adjudication cause. We uphold openness and win-win cooperation, continuously deepening international exchanges and cooperation in the field of intellectual property judicial affairs, serving high-level opening up, and promoting the development of the global intellectual property governance system in a more just and reasonable direction.
(III) Main Objectives. By 2030, the intellectual property judicial rules system adapted to the needs of technological innovation and industrial transformation will be further improved; the litigation system conforming to the characteristics and patterns of intellectual property cases will be further strengthened; the trial system and mechanism meeting the requirements of building a strong intellectual property nation will be further optimized; and the trial team’s capabilities in meeting the needs of intellectual property judicial protection will be further enhanced. The specialization, centralization of jurisdiction, intensive procedures, and professionalization of personnel in the adjudication of intellectual property cases will be significantly improved. A fair, efficient, scientifically regulated, clearly defined, and systematic intellectual property judicial protection system and mechanism will be basically established, and significant progress will be made in the modernization of the intellectual property trial system and trial capabilities.
II. Fully Leveraging the Functions of Intellectual Property Adjudication
(IV) Strengthening the protection of scientific and technological innovation to serve high-level scientific and technological self-reliance. We will adjudicate intellectual property disputes involving key core technologies and emerging industries such as integrated circuits, industrial machine tools, high-end instruments, basic software, advanced materials, biomanufacturing, high-end equipment, aerospace, and new energy in a fair, just, and efficient manner, responding to the judicial needs of future industrial development, strengthening the protection of innovative achievements, promoting the efficient transformation and application of innovative achievements, and contributing to the development of new productive forces. We will clarify the ownership of scientific and technological achievements in accordance with the law, strengthen the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of researchers, ensure reasonable returns, unleash innovation vitality, and strengthen talent incentives. We will strengthen judicial protection of agricultural scientific and technological achievements such as agricultural biotechnology, and actively promote the construction of a diversified and multi-dimensional comprehensive legal protection system for germplasm resources. We will give full play to the effectiveness of systems such as behavioral preservation, evidence preservation, and preliminary judgments, and promptly stop infringing acts in accordance with the law.
(V) Strengthen copyright protection and promote the prosperity and development of socialist culture. Improve the rules of adjudication in the field of copyright, give full play to the guiding role of judicial trials in the construction of excellent traditional Chinese culture, vigorously promote the core socialist values, and stimulate cultural innovation and creativity. Continue to increase the punishment for pirated books, pirated audio and video, pirated computer software, and new types of infringement crimes such as “aggregated hotlinking” and “cloud storage infringement,” and protect the legitimate rights and interests of copyright owners in accordance with the law and in a timely manner. Improve the judicial rules for “secondary creation” and guide the cultural and creative industries to develop healthily within the legal framework. Apply the “notification – necessary measures” rule in accordance with the law, accurately grasp the standards for determining the fault of infringement on online platforms, coordinate and balance the relationship between rights protection and industrial development, and promote comprehensive governance in the Internet field.
(VI) Strengthen the protection of commercial trademarks to support the construction of a brand-strong nation. Give full play to the judicial review function to effectively regulate malicious and improper trademark registration, and resolutely curb “brand imitation,” “free-riding,” and profiteering from the misappropriation of public resources. Support the approval and maintenance of registration of legally valid trademarks with distinctiveness, providing a solid legal guarantee for the sound operation and long-term development of business entities. Severely crack down on trademark infringement and counterfeiting, protect the exclusive rights of registered trademarks according to law, effectively maintain a fair competitive market environment, and support the construction of brand competitiveness. Properly adjudicate cases involving the authorization and confirmation of geographical indication trademarks and infringement, strictly protect geographical indications that meet specific geographical scope and quality requirements, and empower the development of characteristic industries.
(VII) Strengthen anti-monopoly and anti-unfair competition adjudication to promote the construction of a unified national market. Rectify “involutionary” competition according to law, strengthen judicial regulation of monopolistic and unfair competition behaviors, and resolutely remove obstacles hindering the construction of a unified national market. Apply the general and catch-all provisions of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law prudently, effectively regulate new types of unfair competition, and prevent excessive restriction of market competition vitality. Increase judicial protection of trade secrets and improve the rules for judicial protection of trade secrets in key areas. Regulate the order of talent competition in emerging fields according to law, properly determine the validity of non-compete clauses, advocate the concept of honest competition, and maintain healthy competition in the talent market. Properly handle the relationship between trade secret protection and the rational flow of talent to promote the optimal allocation of innovative elements.
(VIII) Strengthen judicial protection of data rights and serve the high-quality development of the digital economy. Adhere to the principle of giving equal importance to data rights protection and data development and utilization, properly handle data disputes, and legally protect the legitimate rights and interests of various data property rights holders, processors, users, product operators, and other data owners. Accurately define the scope and intensity of protection for public data, enterprise data, and personal information data, and promote the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy. Improve judicial rules regarding data rights ownership, market transactions, rights allocation, and interest protection, help improve the basic institutional system for data elements, and promote the construction of an open, shared, and secure integrated data market.
(IX) Properly adjudicate cases involving artificial intelligence to promote beneficial, safe, and fair development. Taking into account factors such as the specific content of the natural person’s input instructions, the specific process of selection and modification, etc., determine whether the generated content reflects the natural person’s original choices and expressions, and accurately determine the legal attributes of AI-generated content in accordance with the law. Adhere to the principle of balancing development and standardized management, and prudently adjudicate new types of cases such as the use of large-scale model training corpora and infringement cases involving AI-generated content. Explore and research judicial rules such as the determination of ownership of AI-generated property, and accurately define the legal responsibilities of AI developers, operators, users, and other entities in accordance with the law.
(X) Strengthen foreign-related intellectual property adjudication and coordinate the advancement of domestic and foreign-related rule of law. Protect the legitimate rights and interests of both Chinese and foreign parties equally in accordance with the law, improve the judicial protection system for foreign-related intellectual property, and serve and safeguard high-level opening-up. Actively study cutting-edge issues such as cross-border and parallel litigation in the field of science and technology intellectual property, and continuously improve the rules for the extraterritorial application of relevant laws and regulations. Deepen international exchanges and cooperation in intellectual property justice, actively participate in global intellectual property governance, and enhance my country’s judicial credibility and international influence.
(XI) Increase the punishment for infringement and strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights across the entire chain. Strengthen civil judicial protection, increase the application of injunctive relief, and effectively improve the timeliness and effectiveness of intellectual property judicial protection. Reasonably apply the rules of evidence, determine the amount of damages for infringement according to law, strictly implement the punitive damages system, and severely punish malicious infringement and repeated infringement according to law. Support administrative law enforcement according to law, improve the mechanism for linking administrative protection and judicial protection, and form a joint force for protection. Fully and accurately implement the criminal policy of combining leniency with severity, punish crimes infringing intellectual property rights according to law, and increase the intensity of criminal crackdown. Strictly adhere to the principle of legality in criminal law, accurately distinguish between civil disputes and criminal offenses, apply the leniency system for confession and acceptance of punishment in accordance with law, and give full play to the deterrent, preventive, and corrective functions of punishment.
III. Improve the institutional mechanisms in the field of intellectual property adjudication
(XII) Strengthen the specialization of adjudication and consolidate the foundation of intellectual property adjudication. Deepen the reform of the national-level intellectual property case appeal mechanism and further optimize the jurisdiction of technology-related intellectual property cases. Strengthen and standardize the construction of specialized intellectual property adjudication institutions in people’s courts at all levels and improve the professional level of intellectual property case adjudication. Improve the intellectual property adjudication organization system, comprehensively strengthen the construction of specialized intellectual property adjudication teams in grassroots people’s courts, and effectively meet the judicial needs of technological innovation for specialized intellectual property adjudication.
(XIII) Optimize case litigation procedures and enhance the overall effectiveness of intellectual property protection. Improve the case jurisdiction mechanism that conforms to the rules of intellectual property adjudication, and improve the connection mechanism between civil, administrative and criminal litigation procedures for intellectual property, so as to promote the integration of judicial concepts, accurate identification of legal responsibilities, coordinated and unified judgment results, and efficient and collaborative case handling. Explore the possibility of people’s courts with jurisdiction over civil intellectual property cases accepting criminal cases with incidental civil litigation related to intellectual property, thereby improving the efficiency of judicial protection of intellectual property.
(XIV) Promote the research and formulation of a special procedural law for intellectual property litigation and improve the litigation norms system. Improve the rules on evidence disclosure, evidence preservation and evidence obstruction in accordance with the law, study and improve the mechanism for handling related litigation and the mechanism for connecting patent infringement and patent invalidation procedures, promote the resolution of outstanding issues in intellectual property litigation, and comprehensively protect the legitimate rights and interests of the parties.
(XV) Improve the mechanism for ascertaining technical facts and enhance the scientific rigor of technical fact determination. Establish a sound mechanism for the participation of technical investigators, expert assistants, and appraisers in the ascertainment of technical facts. Optimize the selection, appointment, and management mechanism for technical investigators, attract professionals from emerging industries and research institutions to enrich the technical investigation talent pool, and fully leverage the role of technical investigators in ascertaining technical facts. Standardize the procedures for the formation, review, and acceptance of technical investigation opinions to ensure the neutrality and objectivity of technical fact determination.
IV. Improve the working mechanism for intellectual property protection
(XVI) Improve the system of rules for the application of law and promote the uniformity of adjudication standards. Construct a guidance system for intellectual property adjudication based on laws, administrative regulations, and judicial interpretations, with reference to guiding cases and cases in the people’s court case database. Deepen the construction of digital courts and give full play to the functions of “one network” and “legal answer network” in unifying the application of law and promoting the improvement of the quality and efficiency of adjudication work. Promote the in-depth application of the “database-network integration” intelligent service platform, improve the retrieval system for similar and new types of cases, and promote the uniformity of legal application standards in intellectual property disputes.
(XVII) Strengthen the comprehensive governance of abnormal mass litigation, false litigation, and malicious litigation to create a favorable environment for innovation. Reinforce the principle of good faith litigation, accurately grasp the relationship between the protection of private rights and the protection of public interests, and between incentivizing innovation and maintaining fair competition, accurately define the boundaries of rights protection according to law, and prevent the abuse of rights. Strengthen the review of the basis of rights, explore and improve auxiliary intelligent applications such as “copyright AI intelligent review,” fully utilize functions such as “one-stop online case query,” correctly apply the rules of evidence, and review the legality and legitimacy of the basis of rights according to law. For false litigation and malicious litigation, take judicial sanctions such as fines and detention according to the severity of the circumstances; if a crime is suspected, promptly transfer the case to the public security organs. Regulate, according to law, the behavior of interfering with competitors’ normal operations and obtaining illegitimate benefits through litigation, and maintain a fair and competitive market order.
(XVIII) Improve the judicial power operation mechanism and promote judicial fairness. Improve the judicial power operation mechanism that conforms to the characteristics and trial rules of intellectual property cases, clarify the list of powers and responsibilities of trial organizations, improve the review system of court presidents and presiding judges, and strengthen the whole-process supervision of case quality. For new types of cases, difficult and complex cases, give full play to the functions of the trial committee and professional judge conferences, and establish a standardized, efficient and unified mechanism for resolving difficult issues in the application of law.
(XIX) Strengthen the mechanism for the connection between administrative law enforcement and the judiciary, and build a comprehensive framework for the protection of intellectual property rights. Improve the mechanism for the connection between judicial trials and administrative law enforcement in intellectual property rights, strengthen the construction of information and intelligent infrastructure for intellectual property rights, promote the establishment of information resource sharing mechanisms with market supervision, copyright, and intellectual property management departments, and form a comprehensive synergy for the protection of intellectual property rights.
(XX) Improve the diversified dispute resolution mechanism and promote the substantive resolution of conflicts and disputes. Uphold and develop the “Fengqiao Experience” in the new era, deeply integrate into the comprehensive social security governance center, and give full play to the advantages of the “general-to-general” diversified dispute resolution mechanism. Increase the mediation efforts for intellectual property disputes, continuously strengthen coordination and linkage with intellectual property management departments, arbitration institutions, industry associations, mediation organizations, etc., and improve the diversified co-governance system for intellectual property disputes.
V. Strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in adjudication
(XXI) Strengthening Political and Organizational Safeguards. We must adhere to Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era in arming our minds, guiding our practice, and promoting our work; always prioritize the Party’s political building; strengthen our awareness of serving the overall situation; and resolutely safeguard national sovereignty, security, and development interests. We must establish and practice a correct view of performance, improve the operation and supervision mechanisms for intellectual property adjudication, and ensure that the adjudication team is loyal, clean, and responsible. We must strictly implement the “three regulations” to prevent interference in the judiciary, improve the mechanisms for recording, reporting, notification, verification, and accountability, and prevent judicial corruption at its source. We must improve the working mechanism for intellectual property judicial protection, strengthen supervision and guidance to lower levels, deepen communication and coordination with relevant functional departments, and ensure that all tasks are implemented effectively.
(XXII) Strengthen Team and Talent Support. Give full play to the role of the “Intellectual Property Professional Adjudication Talent Platform,” continuously strengthen the selection and reserve of outstanding talents, and strive to cultivate a group of intellectual property adjudication talents who are politically steadfast, have a broad vision, are proficient in law, familiar with technology, and possess an international perspective. Ensure that specialized intellectual property adjudication departments are equipped with strong leadership teams and judges with experience in intellectual property adjudication, and maintain a relatively stable intellectual property professional adjudication team. Strengthen exchanges and cooperation with law schools and research institutions, and establish and improve the intellectual property professional internship system.
People’s courts at all levels must fully and accurately implement all requirements of the implementation plan, clarify the division of responsibilities, ensure the implementation of principal responsibilities, and strive for practical results. They must strengthen overall coordination, enhance supervision and guidance, and effectively promote implementation to ensure that all tasks are carried out effectively.
