This blog reviews Zhao Ye’s report on trade secret adjudication by the SPC IP Tribunal. Based on 11 published cases from 2025, the report highlights a sharp increase in damages, systematic reversal of lower court decisions, expanded use of burden-shifting, and stronger sanctions for evidence spoliation. In my view, these decisions also function as a form of strategic signaling, indicating a more rights-protective orientation in judicial practice. However, they do not yet constitute binding, system-wide legal change, which would require further judicial interpretations or formal designation as guiding cases. The emerging judicial trends may make Chinese civil courts a more viable forum for trade secret enforcement.
New Trade Secret Protection Rules in China
China’s recently released 2026 trade secret rules are best understood not as a major legal reform but as an administrative modernization of an enforcement system badly in need of an update. Although international pressure played a role, the rules largely respond to China’s own technological development and growing need to protect confidential information. They show that IP change in China is driven at least as much by domestic economic evolution as by foreign demands.
Recent Translations and Comments on Laws and Cases
Translations and comments are made available on patent and trademark examination guidelines, Seed Law, Plant Variety JI, AUCL JI, and Oppo v Sharp. With regard to the SPC decision in Oppo v Sharp a question is raised concerning China’s efforts to regulate and take jurisdiction over global SEP royalty rate setting.
An Update on Data-Driven Reports on China’s IP Enforcement Environment
Several useful empirical reports on China’s IP environment have been released in the past few weeks. I summarize four of them: Trademark Litigation Jerry Xia and his colleagues at the Anjie firm […]
New Draft JI on Enforcement on Criminal IP Laws, Especially Trade Secrets
China’s judicial organs (the Supreme People’s Court [“SPC”] and Supreme People’s Procuratorate [“SPP”]) continue to work on trade secret related judicial developments, with the release on June 17, 2020 of the “Interpretation […]
SAMR Releases Legislative Work Plan for 2020
On 26 March 2020, SAMR released its Legislative Work Plan for 2020 (“2020 Legislative Plan”) 国家市场监督管理总局2020 年立法工作计划. In 2020, 7 draft laws and administrative regulations行政法规, including the Amendment to the Detailed Rules […]
Essentially Derived Varieties and The Role of Leading Cases in Chinese Plant Variety Protection
Editor’s Note: Plant Variety Protection (PVP) is a little-discussed topic in China’s IP regime. Indeed, this blog has only reported on PVP-specific issues once before, and once in the context of the […]
The Changing Legislative Landscape of Trade Secret Protection in China
This blog is a supplement to my prior blog on the recent TM law and AUCL revisions. Attached is a bilingual translation provided by the Quality Brands Protection Committee (QBPC) of the recent […]
Trademark Law and AUCL Revisions Passed Into Law
Jill Ge of Clifford Chance has brought to my attention that the changes proposed to the Trademark Law and Anti-Unfair Competition Law that I reported on April 21, have now been passed at […]
Reviewing the 2017 SPC Report on IPR Judicial Protection: The Generalities and the Exceptions
There have been a number of empirical reports in recent weeks on China’s IP system. In this blog, I look at the annual Supreme People’s Court 2017 Report on the Situation Regarding […]
China IPR - Intellectual Property Developments in China 