On April 21, 2025, China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) the Typical Intellectual Property Cases in People’s Courts of 2024 (2024年人民法院知识产权典型案例). This year’s annual release includes only 8 cases and includes trade secret theft, an IP ownership dispute, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, and unfair competition. No patent infringement cases made the list this year. Typical cases are used by the SPC to promote uniformity to help ensure similar cases are treated consistently across different courts.
Category: Trademarks
China’s National Intellectual Property Administration’s 2025 Work Plan – Crack Down on Abnormal Patent Application and Malicious Trademark Registrations
On March 19, 2025, China’s National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) released their 2025 Work Plan for Administrative Protection of Intellectual Property Rights (2025年知识产权行政保护工作方案). Some highlights include: continue to crack down on abnormal patent applications and malicious trademark registration and hoarding; strengthen intellectual property protection in the field of artificial intelligence, and strengthen the publicity and implementation of the “Guidelines for Applications for Artificial Intelligence-Related Invention Patents (Trial);” and strengthen the construction of the integrity system in the field of intellectual …
5-Year Prison Term for Counterfeiting Burberry in China
On March 13, 2025, the Shanghai Procuratorate Third Branch announced that the Shanghai Third Intermediate People’s Court upheld a 5-year prison term and 2 million RMB fine for the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks belonging to Burberry. In 2021, the defendant, Gong XX, resumed operating an online store “XXX Overseas Shopping” and started selling counterfeit Burberry brand clothing. The cost of making a single piece of clothing involved in the case ranged from 500 to 700 RMB, but the selling …
USPTO Show Cause Order to Cancel More Than 40,000 China-Originated Trademark Registrations, Shenzhen Responds
In a February 24, 2025 Show Cause Order against Shenzhen Seller Growth Network Technology Co., Ltd. et al., the United States Patent & Trademark Office (USPTO) announced that about 42,000 trademark registration decisions might be vacated and the application or post-registration proceedings reopened for a new determination to be made. For an initial registration decision, the registration will be cancelled and restored to pendency under its application serial number. The reopened proceeding is a proceeding that may be subject to …