Court File photo: VCG

China's Supreme People's Court (SPC) is accelerating work on a judicial guideline to improve the handling of disputes involving artificial intelligence (AI), as the country's judiciary steps up protection of intellectual property rights (IPR) in fast-growing high-tech sectors, CCTV News reported on Monday.

During a press conference on China's IPR protection on Monday, the SPC released a work report detailing Chinese courts' overall intellectual property protection performance. 

According to the report, Chinese courts have strengthened intellectual property trial work in emerging fields and properly heard civil cases involving emerging technologies, including disputes over AI-generated content and AI model parameters. The courts also concluded 908 cases involving data ownership and data transactions, up 25.6 percent year-on-year.

Besides, the SPC is speeding up the drafting of opinions on the lawful and proper adjudication of AI-related disputes, aiming to guide AI toward "beneficial, safe and fair" development, said Tao Kaiyuan, a vice-president of the SPC, at the press conference.

In 2025, Chinese courts received 552,600 new intellectual property cases and concluded 539,600. Among them, courts handled 64,000 first-instance civil cases involving technology-related IP disputes in fields such as integrated circuits, industrial machine tools, high-end instruments, foundational software, advanced materials, and biomanufacturing, Tao said.

Chinese courts have imposed penalties on about 19,000 individuals for IPR infringement crimes in 2025, marking an increase of 6.2 percent year-on-year, according to the Tao. In 2025 alone, courts concluded 908 disputes related to data ownership and transactions, up 25.6 percent from the previous year, Tao said, highlighting civil cases involving AI-generated content and AI models.

In light of rapid advancement and the complex nature of rights and ownership in fields like data and AI, the SPC has acted swiftly to clarify rules. 

"Our focus is to strike a balance between data rights protection and development and utilization, safeguarding the legitimate rights of data resource holders, processors, users, and product operators, while promoting the integration of the digital and real economies," said Li Jian, chief judge of the SPC's Third Civil Division.

Analysts said that the rapid technological change has made it more urgent to clarify ownership boundaries and protection rules in areas such as data and AI. The efforts made by China's top court are intended to provide better judicial protection of data rights while balancing protection with data development and use.

Strengthened IP protection has a positive impact on technological innovation in China by increasing incentives to invent, invest, and commercialize new technologies, Liu Gang, chief economist at the China Institute of New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Strategies, told the Global Times on Monday. "When firms believe their inventions are better protected, they are more willing to invest in research and development. This is especially important for high-cost, high-risk innovation," Liu said.

Given that key industries constitute a vital pillar of the national economy and are subject to intense competition, it is imperative for policymakers to strengthen IPR protection to fortify industrial chains and optimize efficiency. However, the positive effect depends on balanced rules, effective enforcement and support for smaller innovators, Liu added.

Last year, the Central Economic Work Conference placed an emphasis on strengthening the principal position of enterprises in sci-tech innovation, and proposed to improve the intellectual property protection system in emerging fields, Li said.

The outline of the 15th Five-Year Plan (2026-30) for national economic and social development proposes that the intellectual property protection system in emerging fields will be enhanced, and that the public service system for intellectual property and the technology transaction service platform network will be improved, and the new industry standardization pilot project will be implemented.