On the morning of April 23, on the occasion of the approaching 26th World Intellectual Property Day, the Shanghai High People's Court held a press conference on the judicial protection of intellectual property rights by Shanghai courts. Liu Junhua, Vice President of the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, attended the event. At the conference, the White Paper on Intellectual Property Adjudication by Shanghai Courts (2025) and the Report on Judicial Protection of Intellectual Property Rights by the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court (2025) were officially released. Vice President Liu Junhua addressed reporters' questions on topics including the Court's diversified dispute resolution mechanisms.
In 2025, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court accepted a total of 7,333 intellectual property cases of various types, representing a year-on-year increase of 7.97%, and concluded 7,562 cases, up 13.56% year on year. Among the cases accepted, first-instance civil cases numbered 5,610, second-instance civil cases 1,299, first-instance administrative cases 10, second-instance administrative cases 1, non-contentious preservation cases 10, and other cases involving jurisdiction, applications for retrial, and the like totaled 403. Among the first-instance cases accepted, cases involving patents (excluding design patents), computer software, trade secrets, and other technology-related disputes, as well as monopoly disputes, amounted to 1,783, accounting for 31.78% of total first-instance filings.
In 2025, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court achieved notable results in the judicial protection of intellectual property rights across four key areas.
First, enhancing services for innovation and precisely empowering the development of new productive forces. With a focus on protecting the outcomes of scientific and technological innovation, the Court formulated and issued the Implementation Opinions on Strengthening Intellectual Property Adjudication in the New Era to Serve and Safeguard Shanghai's Deepening Development as an International Hub for Science and Technology Innovation, and published eight model cases in the field of science and technology innovation to address key pain points in protecting innovation. Four circuit adjudication posts were successively established in Lingang New Area, Jiading, Songjiang, and Fengxian to actively carry out circuit hearings and bring judicial services closer to the grassroots. The Court also proactively integrated into social governance by extending its adjudicative functions through the issuance of judicial suggestions and other measures.
Second, deepening adjudication mechanism innovation to comprehensively enhance intellectual property protection effectiveness. The Court further streamlined the handling of complex and straightforward cases, establishing five specialized collegial panels covering areas such as standard essential patents and large AI models, thereby creating a new mechanism that combines expedited mediation and adjudication at the front end with precise and intensive adjudication at the back end. The Court also deepened its cooperation mechanism with the Jiangsu Patent Examination Cooperation Center of the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), expanding its pool of part-time technical investigation officers. Litigation preservation mechanisms were strengthened to promptly and effectively halt infringing activities. Quality review conferences on intellectual property cases were held with courts at the base level to ensure uniformity in the application of law.
Third, producing high-quality adjudication outcomes to enhance the judicial influence of intellectual property protection. The Court concentrated on adjudication in key areas and cultivated landmark cases; multiple cases, judgments, and court hearings received national awards. The Court intensified efforts to punish infringement and applied the punitive damages regime in accordance with law. In 20 cases, punitive damages were applied, with total awarded damages exceeding RMB 125 million, a year-on-year increase of 88.25%. The Court also advanced research into cutting-edge issues, hosting symposiums on topics such as "Frontier Judicial Issues in Large AI Models" to continuously raise the standard of intellectual property adjudication.
Fourth, building a collaborative protection framework and striving to make Shanghai a preferred destination for international intellectual property litigation. Guided by a systemic perspective, the Court deepened diversified dispute resolution and effectively settled disputes. In 2025, mediation was successfully concluded in 2,018 cases, with a commissioned mediation success rate of 53%. The Court engaged in exchanges and cooperation to achieve mutual learning and shared benefits, co-organizing the "China-EU Judicial Symposium on Intellectual Property Protection", hosting a visit by the Presiding Judge of the Tenth Civil Panel of the Federal Court of Justice of Germany, and conducting in-depth discussions with European judges. The Court also strengthened talent development to consolidate its adjudication capacity, and has preliminarily established an internal talent pool for cases involving foreign parties.
