Carol Wang

On 20 June, during the market events of the 28th Shanghai International Film Festival, Lusheng Law Firm, together with its strategic partner Rouse, jointly released for the fourth consecutive year the industry IP report entitled “Research Report on the Development and Protection of Intellectual Property in China’s Film and Television Industry (2025)”.
The press conference was jointly presented by Wang Shan, Director of Lusheng’s Shanghai Office and Co-head of the Entertainment Law and Dispute Resolution Practice, and Tian Yanyang, Head of Research, Greater China, at Rouse, who provided an in-depth analysis of trends in IP protection in the film and television sector. The report has attracted extensive attention from the film and television industry both in China and abroad.
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<h2>Highlights of the Press Conference</h2>
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Wang Shan
Director of Lusheng’s Shanghai Office
Co-head of the Entertainment Law and Dispute Resolution Practice
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Tian Yanyang
Head of Research, Greater China, Rouse
&nbsp;
At the press conference, Attorney Wang Shan and Ms. Tian Yanyang shared in depth the latest research findings and cutting-edge issues from the “Research Report on the Development and Protection of Intellectual Property in China’s Film and Television Industry (2025)”, and discussed the following key points:
In 2025, China’s box office reached RMB 51.832 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 22% and ranking second globally. Domestic films accounted for nearly 80% of the box office, and animated films experienced explosive growth.
During the same period, the number of copyright registrations and the proportion of registrations for film and television works remained generally stable. In 2025, the total number of registrations nationwide reached the tens of millions (10,677,043 works); registrations for film and television works reached 134,000.
&nbsp;
<h2>Robust Growth in the Licensed Consumption Market</h2>
From 2019 to 2024, the value added of China’s copyright industry increased from RMB 7.32 trillion to RMB 10.06 trillion, with its share of GDP steadily rising to 7.46%.
In 2025, the IP licensing industry exhibited three new characteristics: “legacy IPs” such as “The Most Beautiful Journey to the West” achieved cross-community dissemination through “new operations”; designer toy IPs saw explosive performance growth with AIGC technology embedded throughout the entire value chain; and the park economy represented by Fantawild Holdings evolved from “theme parks” to “lifestyle” destinations.
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<h2>Explosive Growth of the AI Comic-Drama Industry, with Copyright Compliance and Governance as the Key to Breakthrough</h2>
The AI comic-drama sector entered a period of rapid growth in the second half of 2025—by Q1 2026, total views were approaching 130 billion, with a month-on-month increase of 78.9% in March. The depth of market penetration and the explosive power of traffic in this track are remarkable, while various types of infringement, such as unauthorized adaptations or “pixel-level copying”, have become increasingly prominent.
At the regulatory level, “AI comic-dramas” have been brought within the scope of micro-short dramas in animated forms such as AIGC and comics. In 2025, the National Radio and Television Administration raised investment thresholds and optimized review authority; the Cyberspace Administration launched the “Clean and Bright” special campaign to address issues such as AI “magic alteration” and “digital swill”; and platforms established filtering mechanisms and centralized clean-up mechanisms.
&nbsp;
<h2>Legal Protection of Actors’ Digital Assets and Virtual Likenesses</h2>
The core issue lies in the reconstruction of the boundaries between personality rights and property rights—biometric features such as real persons’ facial characteristics, vocal qualities, and body movements are extracted, modeled, and commercialized.
Certain existing international cases provide references for mechanisms such as posthumous authorization and dual authorization. Under the domestic legislative framework, the Administrative Measures for Digital Virtual Human Information Services (Draft for Comments) plan for the first time to establish unified governance of virtual digital human issues, while in judicial practice there are corresponding cases concerning portrait rights, voice-related rights and interests, and general personality rights.
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<h2>Chinese IP Going Global: From “Going Out” to “Going In”</h2>
In 2025, overseas revenue from games exceeded USD 20.4 billion, surpassing RMB 100 billion for six consecutive years. Chinese games going global are shifting from “product export” to “cultural IP export”. The trend of designer toy IPs, represented by POP MART, being “driven by overseas markets” has become increasingly evident. As for micro-short dramas going overseas, their “localization” essentially represents a leap in IP development logic from “content export” to “localized IP incubation”.
The success of IP going global is half commercial strategy and half intellectual property deployment. Right holders need to adopt multi-layered protection strategies: strengthening copyright registration, trademark applications, and customs recordals in destination countries; enhancing monitoring on e-commerce platforms and cooperating with local law enforcement authorities; employing technologies such as digital watermarking and blockchain for traceability and anti-counterfeiting; and at the same time implementing targeted deployment and responses based on different categories.
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<h2>Continued and Significant Effectiveness of the “Dual-Track Protection” of Administrative and Judicial Enforcement</h2>
A series of new laws and regulations in 2025 increased the amount of damages for IP infringement and the application of punitive damages, and also enhanced the standardization of administrative enforcement, particularly as the regulatory system for labeling AI-generated synthetic content has been gradually improved.
Administrative protection of intellectual property in China’s film and television industry has continued the “online + offline” coordinated governance model. Through the ongoing deepening of special campaigns such as “Sword Net 2025” and “Sword Shadow 2026”, the improvement of multi-agency coordinated governance mechanisms, and the precise empowerment of technological means, a three-dimensional protection system covering both online and offline and both domestic and overseas has been established.
In the judicial field, several high-compensation cases have arisen from disputes between long-form and short-form videos. For example, in August 2025, the Guangdong High People’s Court applied punitive damages in the short video infringement case involving “The Irresistible”, ordering a certain platform to pay RMB 60 million in damages; in the same month, the Chongqing High People’s Court applied one-time punitive damages in the case involving infringing clip videos of “Lost You Forever” on a certain platform, with damages approaching RMB 30 million.
At the same time, forms of copyright infringement in AI-related film and television works have become increasingly diverse. Many platforms, under the combined impetus of judicial and regulatory forces, have established relatively sound filtering and copyright complaint mechanisms, and cases in which exemption from liability is granted based on the “safe harbor principle” are on the rise.
Attorney Wang also analyzed, with reference to several current high-profile cases, IP protection and litigation strategies that take into account public opinion and other factors in a comprehensive manner.
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Photos from the event
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<h2 style="text-align: center;">Report Request</h2>
The report has been made available on online platforms during the Shanghai International Film Festival
Please scan the code to obtain the full electronic version
*This material is only sent to corporate personnel, thank you for your understanding
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<h2>Lusheng’s Entertainment Law Services</h2>
Lusheng’s entertainment law services cover the entire life cycle of cultural and entertainment film and television brands, from IP creation and incubation, IP release and promotion, and IP derivatives and development, to IP protection and enforcement.
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We are committed to helping clients avoid intellectual property risks at all stages of film and television entertainment projects, including contractual and infringement risks arising from project initiation and development, filming and production, publicity and distribution, and subsequent value realization. We strive to provide comprehensive IP protection for film and television entertainment projects and to maximize the commercial value of IP.
At the same time, Lusheng has achieved remarkable results in handling pioneering and complex cases with significant impact. More than 140 related cases handled by the firm have been selected as typical cases by courts, procuratorates, and other professional institutions at various levels.
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<h2>Rouse Speaker</h2>
Tian Yanyang
Head of Research, Greater China
Rouse
Email:&nbsp;atian@rouse.com
&nbsp;

Lusheng issues China Film & TV IP Report at SIFF, interpreting the 2025 phenomenon

Terry Lu

On 15 May 2026, the National Medical Products Administration of the People’s Republic of China (NMPA) issued Announcement No. 47 of 2026, whereby the Measures for the Implementation of Drug Trial Data Protection (the “Implementation Measures”) officially came into effect[1]. This signifies the formal establishment and implementation of the drug trial data protection regime in China. This data protection regime covers chemical drugs and biological products, and grants different protection periods and scopes based on the degree of drug innovation, thereby comprehensively incentivizing the development of innovative drugs while taking into account the interests of generic drugs. The key points of the Implementation Measures are summarized as follows.
1. The subject matter of data protection is undisclosed trial data and other data independently obtained by the applicant. Such trial data shall be unpublished, complete registration data that are used for the first time within the territory of China for a drug marketing authorization application.
2. Different protection periods and scopes are granted for different categories of drug marketing authorization applications. Specifically:
<ul class="list-paddingleft-1">
<li>
For innovative drugs and original research drugs that have been marketed overseas but not yet marketed domestically (including chemical drugs, vaccines and therapeutic biological products) that are applying for marketing authorization for the first time within the territory of China, a 6‑year data protection period shall be granted, and the scope of protection shall cover all trial data in the marketing authorization dossier used to demonstrate the safety, efficacy and quality controllability of the drug.
</li>
<li>
For original research drugs (including chemical drugs and therapeutic biological products) that have been marketed overseas but not yet marketed domestically, where a new indication that has not been approved either domestically or overseas is submitted for the first time, a 6‑year data protection period may be obtained; however, where other indications have already been approved earlier or additional new indications are subsequently added, only a 4‑year protection period shall be granted. The scope of protection is limited to the clinical trial data supporting the marketing of the new indication.
</li>
<li>
For improved drugs (including chemical drugs, vaccines and therapeutic biological products), a 4‑year data protection period shall be granted, and the scope of data protection shall include only new clinical trial data that demonstrate an obvious clinical advantage compared with known active ingredients (marketed biological products), excluding bioavailability, bioequivalence and immunogenicity data of vaccines.
</li>
<li>
For generic drugs and biological products of the first approved original research drug that has been marketed overseas but not yet marketed domestically, a 3‑year data protection period shall be granted, and the scope of protection shall include only the necessary clinical trial data supporting the approval, excluding bioavailability, bioequivalence and immunogenicity data of vaccines.
</li>
</ul>
3. During the data protection period, where another marketing authorization applicant relies on the protected trial data to submit a marketing authorization application without the permission of the right holder, the NMPA shall not grant approval. For trial data of innovative/original research drugs, applications for improved new drugs, chemical generics and biosimilars shall all be refused approval; for trial data of other types of drugs, only chemical generics and biosimilars that rely on such trial data shall be refused approval.
4. Applications for trial data protection shall be submitted concurrently with the drug marketing authorization application. For drug registration applications that were submitted prior to 15 May but have not yet completed the review process, an application for drug trial data protection shall be submitted within 15 days; failure to submit within the time limit shall be deemed a waiver of drug trial data protection.
5. The Center for Drug Evaluation of the NMPA shall be responsible for the technical review of data protection, determining the scope and duration of data protection to be granted, and publishing relevant information on data protection.
6. Within one year prior to the expiry of the data protection period, a drug marketing authorization application relying on such trial data may be submitted, and upon completion of the technical review, the relevant drug shall be approved for marketing after the expiry of the data protection period.
The implementation of the drug trial data protection regime undoubtedly provides more comprehensive protection and a longer period of market exclusivity for innovative drugs in addition to the patent protection regime, thereby attracting more breakthrough and clinically superior innovative drugs into the Chinese market and providing Chinese patients with a broader range of therapeutic options. At the same time, it also encourages the earliest possible market entry of first generics, which can likewise enjoy a certain period of market exclusivity, thereby increasing the accessibility of blockbuster drugs and achieving a balanced and mutually reinforcing environment for both generics and innovation, fostering a prosperous market where both can advance in parallel.

China’s drug trial data protection regime is now formally in force.

Wendy Chen

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New rules on administrative protection of trade secrets: interpretation of the Regulation

Mi Li

<h2>This article was first published on IAM. Please contact us for any reprint.</h2>
Patent specifications and drawings are important carriers of technical information. Once they are published by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA), they become publicly available knowledge resources. With the rapid development of generative artificial intelligence, a key question has emerged: May published patent specifications and drawings be used as training data for AI models? In China, what legal and compliance risks would such use entail?
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<h2>The copyright nature of patent specifications and drawings and the requirements for publication</h2>
According to the Copyright Law, a work must possess originality and be expressed in a tangible form. Although the drafting of patent specifications and drawings is subject to formal requirements under the Patent Law and they must be examined by the patent administrative authority and published by way of announcement, in essence they are not administrative documents but technical literature created by the applicant. As long as they meet the constitutive elements of a work, they should be protected by the Copyright Law.
There remains room for creativity in the wording, sentence arrangement and design of drawings in patent specifications and drawings, which can reflect the author’s individualized choices and the “beauty of science”. Therefore, patent specifications and drawings that meet the minimum standard of creativity may well constitute works within the meaning of the Copyright Law.
Judicial practice has already provided clear recognition in this regard. For example, in (2021) Jing 73 Min Zhong No. 4384, the Beijing Intellectual Property Court held that patent specifications and drawings do not fall within the category of administrative documents, and that examination and publication by the national patent administrative authority do not alter their nature. The court found that the drawings in the specification demonstrate originality in their structural arrangement and choice of lines and should be protected as graphic works. Similarly, in (2022) Shan Zhi Min Zhong No. 112, the Shaanxi High People’s Court emphasized that the patent specification possesses originality in the expression of the technical solution, the choice of wording and the arrangement of sentences, and constitutes a literary work; its copyright nature cannot be denied on the ground of formal requirements.
These cases indicate that courts generally recognize that patent specifications and drawings should be protected by copyright when they satisfy the requirement of originality, rather than being regarded merely as technical literature. However, the purpose of publishing patent specifications and drawings is to disseminate technical knowledge, and this function naturally limits the exercise of copyright. The acts of the national patent administrative authority in the course of examination and publication, as well as those of the public in reproducing and disseminating these documents to obtain technical information, are generally regarded as reasonable conduct, provided that they do not affect the normal exploitation of the works by the copyright holder or cause unreasonable prejudice. The academic community has also pointed out that the technical disclosure nature of patent specifications and drawings determines that the scope of their copyright protection should be appropriately narrowed so as to avoid impeding the circulation and utilization of knowledge.
&nbsp;
<h2>Legal risks and compliance framework for AI training</h2>
In the development of artificial intelligence, the lawfulness of training data has always been one of the core issues. Including published patent specifications and drawings in training data reflects the reuse of technical resources, but also raises complex considerations under the Copyright Law. Where patent specifications and drawings possess originality and are thus protected as works under the Copyright Law, training activities may involve the right of reproduction or the right of communication through information networks, thereby giving rise to potential infringement risks.
How to strike a balance between copyright protection and technological innovation remains a challenge jointly faced by the judiciary and policymakers. The “three-step test” established under China’s Copyright Law requires that the use must fall within statutory circumstances, must not conflict with the normal exploitation of the work, and must not unreasonably prejudice the legitimate interests of the copyright holder. Whether AI training satisfies this framework has yet to see a uniform conclusion. Although the training process is essentially an analytical use of works rather than a direct substitute for the originals, the delineation of “normal exploitation” and “unreasonable prejudice” still requires further clarification by the judiciary.
In judicial practice, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Court, in the 2023 LoRA/Altman case, introduced the concept of “analytical use”, holding that the purpose of generative AI training is to analyze the ideological elements and patterns of expression of works rather than to reproduce the originals, and that such use may therefore be recognized as fair use. However, the court also stressed that AI service providers must take measures to prevent users from generating infringing content, and that fair use does not equate to exemption from liability. This judicial practice provides an important reference for AI training, while also highlighting the responsibility requirements under the compliance framework.
Meanwhile, policy-level regulations are being continuously refined. The Interim Measures for the Administration of Generative Artificial Intelligence Services explicitly require AI service providers to use training data from lawful sources during the training process, to respect intellectual property rights, to enhance the authenticity and diversity of data, and to establish transparent mechanisms to prevent the generation of infringing content. These provisions not only provide enterprises with a compliance framework, but also mean that even if judicial practice adopts a tolerant attitude toward training activities, enterprises must still assume compliance responsibilities at the institutional level.
In industry practice, some developers of AI patent tools have indicated that their products are based on large models (such as those of Google and OpenAI), and that their training data cover a large amount of publicly available information. Whether patent specifications and drawings are included often depends on data collection strategies and copyright compliance measures. This shows that while industry practice is exploring technological possibilities, it is also continuously adjusting compliance pathways. Although copyright risks cannot be completely eliminated, if the use is limited to internal analysis and model optimization, and does not affect the normal exploitation of patent specifications and drawings or cause unreasonable prejudice to the rights holders, it may meet the requirements of fair use. To this end, enterprises should adopt multiple measures in practice: retain records of the sources of training data and compliance, establish internal review mechanisms, and clearly define the scope of data use and allocation of responsibilities in cooperation agreements.
&nbsp;
<h2>Conclusion and international comparison</h2>
Published patent specifications and drawings provide an important data resource for the development of artificial intelligence. In China, their use for AI training lies at the intersection of the Copyright Law, the doctrine of fair use, and emerging regulatory requirements. Future developments may lie in, on the one hand, gradually clarifying the boundaries of fair use through judicial precedents, and on the other hand, establishing an operable compliance framework through policies and industry norms, thereby promoting innovation while maintaining the order of intellectual property protection.
In international comparison, the U.S. Copyright Office’s third policy report on artificial intelligence, issued in May 2025, focuses on the training of generative AI models. The United States relies on the doctrine of “fair use”, and courts, in multiple cases involving search engines and data mining, tend to find that analytical use rather than substitutive use may constitute fair use.
The European Union, through the Copyright Directive (2019/790/EU), has established a “text and data mining exception”, allowing research institutions and certain commercial entities to use protected works under specific conditions, while granting rights holders the option of “reservation of rights” to exclude their works from being used for data mining or AI training.
This institutional divergence indicates that, in its future institutional design, China may draw on the case-law approach of the United States as well as the legislative model of the European Union, and, in light of its own needs for intellectual property protection and industrial development, explore an appropriate balancing mechanism.
&nbsp;
<h4>[1] https://wenshu.court.gov.cn/</h4>
<h4>[2] https://wenshu.court.gov.cn/</h4>
<h4>[3]https://www.copyright.gov/ai/Copyright-and-Artificial-Intelligence-Part-3-Generative-AI-Training-Re…</h4>
<h4>[4]https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2019/790/oj/eng</h4>
<h4>[5]https://wenshu.court.gov.cn/ https://wenshu.court.gov.cn/</h4>
<h4>[6]https://www.copyright.gov/ai/Copyright-and-Artificial-Intelligence-Part-3-Generative-AI-Training-Re…</h4>
<h4>[7]https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/dir/2019/790/oj/eng</h4>

From patent disclosure to AI training: legal challenges and institutional responses

Jensen Li

Recently, the report entitled “China’s Clean Energy Innovation Landscape”, jointly authored by Lu Sheng Patent Director Li Mi and Patent Attorney Li Hai, was officially published in the first 2026 special issue of the internationally renowned IP media IAM.
The special research report “Power Moves” focuses on global intellectual property deployment and industrial development trends in the field of clean energy. This special research project was initiated and led by IAM, which invited IP professionals from around the world in the clean energy sector to contribute in a coordinated manner, thereby producing a comprehensive research outcome covering the entire industrial value chain.
Lu Sheng Patent Director Li Mi and Patent Attorney Li Hai were also invited to participate and were responsible for drafting the China chapter.
This special report further sorts out and summarizes, and provides a complete depiction of the four major stages in the evolution of China’s clean energy policies and industry development, offering a clear analysis of how policy orientations and institutional changes at each stage have continuously empowered the iteration of domestic clean energy technologies, patent innovation, and the prosperous development of the industry.
&nbsp;
For further details, please visit the following link to access the full report:
<a href="https://www.iam-media.com/article/the-policy-shifts-behind-chinas-green-energy-revolution">https://www.iam-media.com/article/the-policy-shifts-behind-chinas-green-energy-revolution</a>

Lusheng Patent Director Li Mi and agent Li Hai join IAM report on China’s clean energy shift

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Lusheng Patent Director Li Mi and agent Li Hai join IAM report on China’s clean energy shift

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