Key Takeaways
- • China's Supreme People's Court elevated trade secret damages awards dramatically in 2025, with the SPC IP Tribunal issuing final judgments on a concentrated backlog of complex, high-value cases that collectively involved over CNY1 billion in damages across 11 published decisions spanning 11 distinct industries.
- • Record-breaking punitive damages award reached approximately USD 90 million (CNY 640 million) in the Chengdu versus Wei case, establishing a new benchmark for trade secret misappropriation judgments in China and signaling substantially higher enforcement costs for corporate violations.
- • The SPC reversed infringement findings across five cases with damages ranging from CNY 500,000 to CNY 28.87 million, demonstrating heightened judicial scrutiny of trade secret theft claims while establishing clearer enforcement standards for insider theft and organized misappropriation schemes.
- • Criminal convictions for trade secret infringement surged 96.6% year-on-year in 2023, with 91 criminal convictions recorded in 2024, indicating aggressive parallel enforcement through both civil and criminal proceedings independent of one another.
- • The SPC imposed severe sanctions for evidence obstruction, shifted burden of proof in meaningful ways, pierced corporate structures to reach ultimate beneficial owners, and asserted full independence of civil trade secret proceedings from criminal counterparts—establishing nine core adjudication trends that will function as authoritative guidance for lower courts nationwide.
Summary
China's Supreme People's Court has substantially strengthened trade secret protections through a systematic recalibration of damages standards and enforcement mechanisms in 2025, with far-reaching implications for multinational corporations and domestic enterprises operating in the country. In late January 2026, the SPC IP Tribunal published a series of landmark decisions from 2025 that collectively establish new benchmarks for trade secret litigation, reflecting the tribunal's concentrated effort to resolve a substantial backlog of complex, high-value cases following its November 2023 decision to cease accepting routine matters outside the major disputes category.
The most visible signal of this enforcement shift is the record-breaking damages award in the Chengdu versus Wei case, which reached approximately USD 90 million (CNY 640 million)—now standing as the largest trade secret misappropriation judgment in Chinese legal history. This represents a categorical increase from historical award patterns; prior data showed that 37.3% of cases resulted in damages below CNY 100,000 and 36.1% between CNY 100,000 and CNY 500,000. The tribunal's analysis of 11 published 2025 judgments spanning 11 distinct industries and involving over CNY 1 billion in collective damages reveals a coherent doctrine that dramatically elevated award levels while establishing stricter proof standards for infringement claims.
The court's adjudication methodology now incorporates nine core trends that fundamentally reshape litigation risk for corporate defendants. These include heightened scrutiny of organized and planned misappropriation (particularly insider theft schemes), imposition of severe sanctions for evidence obstruction, burden-of-proof shifts in material respects, piercing of corporate structures to reach ultimate beneficial owners, and crucially, assertion of full independence between civil and criminal trade secret proceedings. This last point is particularly significant: criminal convictions for trade secret infringement surged 96.6% year-on-year in 2023, with 91 convictions recorded in 2024, creating parallel enforcement pathways that operate independently rather than sequentially.
The SPC's 2025 judicial interpretation on punitive damages and designation of model cases signal a transition from sporadic enforcement to systematic, precedent-driven jurisprudence. These decisions will function as authoritative guidance for lower courts across the country for the foreseeable future. For institutional investors and multinational enterprises, the practical effect is substantially elevated litigation exposure: damages now routinely reach CNY 28.87 million or higher in established infringement cases, with record awards approaching USD 90 million in cases involving organized theft schemes. The court's willingness to pierce corporate structures and pursue ultimate beneficial owners also expands exposure beyond conventional subsidiary-level liability.
The most visible signal of this enforcement shift is the record-breaking damages award in the Chengdu versus Wei case, which reached approximately USD 90 million (CNY 640 million)—now standing as the largest trade secret misappropriation judgment in Chinese legal history. This represents a categorical increase from historical award patterns; prior data showed that 37.3% of cases resulted in damages below CNY 100,000 and 36.1% between CNY 100,000 and CNY 500,000. The tribunal's analysis of 11 published 2025 judgments spanning 11 distinct industries and involving over CNY 1 billion in collective damages reveals a coherent doctrine that dramatically elevated award levels while establishing stricter proof standards for infringement claims.
The court's adjudication methodology now incorporates nine core trends that fundamentally reshape litigation risk for corporate defendants. These include heightened scrutiny of organized and planned misappropriation (particularly insider theft schemes), imposition of severe sanctions for evidence obstruction, burden-of-proof shifts in material respects, piercing of corporate structures to reach ultimate beneficial owners, and crucially, assertion of full independence between civil and criminal trade secret proceedings. This last point is particularly significant: criminal convictions for trade secret infringement surged 96.6% year-on-year in 2023, with 91 convictions recorded in 2024, creating parallel enforcement pathways that operate independently rather than sequentially.
The SPC's 2025 judicial interpretation on punitive damages and designation of model cases signal a transition from sporadic enforcement to systematic, precedent-driven jurisprudence. These decisions will function as authoritative guidance for lower courts across the country for the foreseeable future. For institutional investors and multinational enterprises, the practical effect is substantially elevated litigation exposure: damages now routinely reach CNY 28.87 million or higher in established infringement cases, with record awards approaching USD 90 million in cases involving organized theft schemes. The court's willingness to pierce corporate structures and pursue ultimate beneficial owners also expands exposure beyond conventional subsidiary-level liability.
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