In 2025, the scale of intellectual property trials in Guangdong Provincial Courts continued to grow. Throughout the year, 120,787 new IP cases of various types were accepted, and 115,295 were concluded, marking an increase of 44.99% and 30.33% respectively compared to that of the previous year. A total of 70,520 cases were withdrawn, with a withdrawal rate of 62.34%, reaching a new high in nearly a decade.

In 2025, Guangdong courts accepted 112,821 new first-instance civil IP cases, marking a year-on-year increase of 54.43%. Among these, 106,810 cases were concluded, representing a year-on-year growth of 37.47%. In terms of case types, there were 62,821 copyright cases, 24,865 trademark cases, 17,518 patent cases, 3,028 competition cases, and 4,589 other cases, accounting for 55.68%, 22.04%, 15.53%, 2.68%, and 4.07% respectively.

5,186 new civil cases of second-instance were accepted, and 5,587 were concluded; 460 cases were applied for retrial review, and 550 were concluded; 154 cases were retrial cases, and 173 were concluded. The settlement-to-receipt ratio exceeded 107% for all cases.

In the cases of first instance, 20,103 new technology-related IP cases were accepted, marking a year-on-year increase of 33.35%. Among them, 19,637 cases were concluded, representing a year-on-year growth of 12.40%. Specifically, there were 17,401 patent infringement and ownership dispute cases, 85 new plant variety disputes, and 41 technical secret disputes.

Among the newly accepted foreign-related cases, trademark disputes accounted for 81.62%, while newly accepted trademark cases from Hong Kong and Macao accounted for 42.73%. Throughout the year, 2,611 foreign-related IP cases and 279 cases involving Hong Kong and Macao were concluded.

In terms of criminal trials, 1,741 new first-instance criminal IP cases were accepted, and 1,744 were concluded; 330 second-instance criminal IP cases were accepted, and 317 were concluded. Among the concluded first-instance criminal cases, 835 were convicted for the crime of counterfeiting registered trademarks, and 726 were convicted for the crime of selling goods bearing counterfeit registered trademarks.

In 2025, Guangdong courts applied punitive damages in 83 cases, with 15 of them resulting in compensation exceeding RMB 10 million, total punitive damages approximately RMB 487 million. Additionally, 3,128 cases of unfair competition and antitrust violations, as well as 61 malicious IP litigation cases, were adjudicated.

In emerging fields, the Guangzhou Internet Court concluded 712 copyright disputes involving content generated by artificial intelligence throughout the year, and issued six judicial suggestions to copyright authorities on clearly marking "AI-generated content", continuously addressing new issues in the governance of AI copyright.