The Chinese New Year is generally seen by those celebrating it as a time for reflection, change and improvement. For the 2025 Chinese New Year, the China National Intellectual Property Administration (“CNIPA”) also seems to have taken the opportunity to
Turning an AI image into reality, does that infringe in China?


On 27th November 2023, the Beijing Internet Court upheld that an AI generated work can be protected by copyright if the work reflects an author’s choice of expression and has originality (see our earlier blog post here). Almost…
PRC hands down first ruling on AI voice infringement


Who is liable when an artificial intelligence system infringes copyright – a missed opportunity by the PRC Court


In our previous newsletter here, we reported a decision from the Beijing Internet Court ruling that the copyright of a portrait generated by an artificial intelligence (“AI”) program is owned by the user who “controlled meticulously” the parameters for…
The long-awaited amendments to the PRC Patent Implementation Regulations have finally arrived


We reported in 2020 on PRC’s fourth amendment to the Patent Law (link to our blog post here). More than three years later, the PRC State Council has finally approved and promulgated the amended Patent Implementation Regulations (“Regulations…
Is that picture your creation or the AI program’s – an age-old question revisited


The copyright eligibility of computer-generated literature and artistic works is not, contrary to what many may think, a post-millennial question. In a case decided as early as 1985 [1], in a time long before the internet era, the English…
China – Suspension of Trade Mark Applications More Readily Available?


In our previous post (here), we talked about a change being proposed by the China National Intellectual Property Administrative (commonly known as CNIPA), prohibiting repeated filings for the same trade mark. This was particularly concerning to brand…
Yet Another Change Coming Up? Structural Changes to CNIPA and China’s Potential 5th Amendment to Trademark Law


We are just a few months into 2023, but we are already seeing a number of proposed changes to Chinese Trademark Law.
We wish to draw attention to some of the upcoming structural changes to the China National Intellectual Property…
China’s accession to the Apostille Convention: Authentication procedure for foreign documents used in China to be greatly simplified


On March 8, 2023, China deposited an instrument for accession to the Convention of 5 October 1961 Abolishing the Requirement of Legalisation for Foreign Public Documents (also known as the “Apostille Convention”). Upon the scheduled implementation of the…
How does an offer for sale affect the patentee’s profitability – an economic analysis from the SPC


Under the PRC Patent Law, the offering for sale of an infringing product constitutes an act of infringement, regardless of whether the product is actually sold or not. However, there are divergent views as to what damages arise merely…