Beijing courts handled around 69,000 IP-related cases last year

Beijing courts solved a large number of intellectual property cases last year, including those related to new technologies and emerging businesses, with harsher punishment against IP violators.

The Beijing High People's Court said on Thursday that courts citywide concluded 68,855 IP disputes in 2023, with issuance of legal measures to serve global digital economic development and protect IP rights regarding core technologies.

"We also tackled a number of new and complicated IP lawsuits, which received widespread attention among the public," said Ren Xuefeng, vice-president of the high court.

One landmark case focused on the copyright of an image generated via artificial intelligence, which was ruled by the Beijing Internet Court last year.

In the first ruling of its kind in China, the internet court identified the AI-generated picture as an artwork under copyright protection because of the originality and intellectual input of its human creator.

The internet court ruled in favor of the AI-generated image creator, ordering the defendant, who used the picture without the creator's permission in an online post, to make a public apology and pay 500 yuan ($70) in compensation.

Meanwhile, the capital's courts also handled IP cases involving new varieties of plants and online navigation maps last year, Ren said, adding "verdicts of these lawsuits have set examples on how to protect IP rights in these fields."

In addition, Beijing judges have worked with IP administrations to alleviate IP conflicts in early stage, and established platforms with courts in Tianjin and Hebei province to solve IP cases through mediation, according to him.