On 21 April 2025 the Supreme People’s Court released an annual report entitled “The Status of Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in Chinese Courts (2024)” (“中国法院知识产权司法保护状况(2024年)”), in both Chinese and English.
This update will highlight some of the IP and trademark trends across China found in the report, including an increase in criminal cases and in cases involving punitive damages.
Key statistics
The Chinese courts handled 529,370 new IP cases in 2024. While this is a decrease of 2.67% compared with 2023, the number of concluded cases rose slightly to 543,911.
Criminal IP litigation saw substantial growth, with 9,120 first-instance criminal cases received and 9,003 concluded – year-on-year increases of 24.34% and 29.22%, respectively. Among these, 8,079 cases involved the infringement of registered trademarks – 8,017 of which were resolved, reflecting annual increases of 21.78% and 26.11%.
In civil cases, punitive damages were applied in 460 cases involving serious malicious infringement, representing a substantial 44.2% increase from the previous year.
Administrative IP litigation also experienced growth, with 20,849 first-instance cases accepted and 27,745 concluded, respectively increasing by 1.29% and 24.19% year over year. Within these administrative cases, trademark cases represented 19,130 cases, up 3.08% year over year.
In Beijing, the average monthly filing volume of first-instance administrative cases of trademark rejections received by the courts decreased by nearly 12.5%. The courts in Beijing strengthened their communication with the China National Intellectual Property Administration and advanced the adjudication quality and effectiveness of administrative cases involving trademarks.
The report also notes that courts across the country dealt with 31 cases involving monopolies, more than twice the number identified in 2023.
Comment
This year marks the final year of the 14th Five-Year Plan, with one of the goals being to provide high-level judicial protection of intellectual property across China.
Chinese courts continuously worked to improve the adjudication of trademark cases. The statistics show that this particularly applies to first-instance criminal cases, where an increase of 26.11% was seen in resolved cases compared to 2023.
Punitive damages in civil cases were applied to 44.2% more cases last year than in the previous year, highlighting China’s goal of using punitive damages to increase the financial burden of infringement and the cost of law violations in civil cases.
It is also clear that closer attention is being paid to tackling monopolies, as the number of such cases dealt with in 2024 doubled compared to the previous year. It will be interesting to see whether this focus continues in 2025 and what effect it has on monopolistic behaviour in China.
These statistics, combined with the changes to China’s trademark regime over the past few years, suggest many positive benefits for international brand owners, especially regarding the number of concluded cases and the increase in cases where punitive damages were awarded.
This article first appeared in WTR Daily, part of World Trademark Review, in May 2025. For further information, please go to www.worldtrademarkreview.com.