High-tech disputes test courts' judicial expertise

IP cases involving AI, biomedicine and digital economy continue to surge

China has experienced a significant surge in intellectual property cases over the past five years, prompting judges to adopt a range of measures to strengthen protections for innovators and support high-quality development, officials from the Supreme People's Court said.

Zhou Jiahai, head of the Supreme People's Court's Research Office, told a news conference on Saturday that as the innovation-driven development strategy has deepened, intellectual property has increasingly become a strategic national resource and a core element of international competitiveness. That shift has led to a rapid rise in IP disputes, he said.

Chinese courts resolved more than 2.5 million first-instance IP cases from 2021 to 2025, a 64.44 percent increase compared with the previous five-year period, Zhou said. Disputes in high-tech and cutting-edge sectors have surged, involving large technology companies, small and medium-sized enterprises, research institutes and foreign firms.