SAMR Released 2025 IP Enforcement Report And 2026 Work Plan

I. Review of IP Enforcement Work in 2025

Conducting special campaigns and strictly investigating major cases. In 2025, the SAMR continued to carry out the specific enforcement campaign of intellectual property protection, strictly cracking down on illegal activities in trademarks, patents, geographical indications, and other areas. Throughout the year, a total of 37,000 illegal cases were investigated and handled, involving an amount of RMB 677 million yuan, and 1,130 suspected criminal cases were transferred to judicial authorities. The SAMR directly organized the investigation and handling of multiple major cases, and at this press conference, it released the top ten typical intellectual property enforcement cases handled by the Market Regulation Department in 2025.

Promoting institutional development. In recent years, enforcement by market supervision authorities has revealed that it is very common for online stores involved in cases not to operate at their publicly listed addresses, making it difficult to locate them during enforcement actions. In response to the prominent issue of these "ghost online stores", SAMR organized the drafting of the Regulations on the Obligation of E-Commerce Platforms to Cooperate in Investigating Trademark Infringement Cases, further strengthening platform obligations and optimizing investigation procedures. These regulations were made publicly available for comments at the end of 2025. In addition, to address the difficulty in identifying illegal acts such as counterfeiting well-known trademarks in trademark enforcement, efforts are underway to develop the Rules for Administrative Enforcement in Market Regulation on Determining Trademark Similarity Infringement, providing stronger and more effective legal support to combat prominent issues like "shanzhai" or non-authentic or non-genuine brands and "piggybacking on famous brands“.

Deepening government-enterprise collaboration and promoting social co-governance. At present acts of infringement and counterfeiting are increasingly concealed. To more efficiently detect clues of infringements and illegal activities and to quickly investigate and collect evidence, SAMR has organized the establishment of the Government-Enterprise Collaboration Mechanism for Brand Protection, which requires market regulation departments to respond promptly to enterprise reports, investigate case clues in a timely manner, and for enterprises to actively cooperate with market regulation departments, actively report case clues, promptly provide opinions on authenticity identification, and assist in enforcement investigations. The first batch of 60 enterprises participating in the government-enterprise collaboration comprehensively covers key industries such as food, clothing, electrical appliances, and daily necessities. Among them are state-owned enterprises, private enterprises, as well as foreign-invested enterprises, reflecting equal protection of intellectual property enforcement by the market regulation departments.

Expanding international exchanges. In November 2025, the SAMR and WIPO jointly held the International Conference on Intellectual Property Enforcement Exchange, which was attended by international organizations, representatives from multiple countries, and 104 Chinese and foreign companies. The conference showcased China's practices and achievements in intellectual property enforcement, and the typical cases handled had a positive international impact.

II. Work Plan for 2026

This year, the SAMR will continue to strengthen the enforcement of IP rights, with a particular focus on cracking down on and regulating infringement and counterfeiting activities in e-commerce.

i) Fully leverage the role of the government-enterprise collaboration mechanism for brand protection and organize the investigation and handling of multiple major cases that run across provincial boundaries, involve large amounts of damage, and have significant impact.

ii) Conduct a "look-back" review of 81 e-commerce platforms on their implementation of the 2024 Self-discipline Convention for Improving Intellectual Property Protection on E-Commerce Platforms.

iii) Organize research on e-commerce platforms to develop specific measures for implementing the Provisions on the Obligations of E-Commerce Platforms to Cooperate with Investigations of Trademark Infringement Cases and supervise their implementation.

The SAMR will continue to strengthen development of laws and regulations, comprehensively promote cultivation of professional teams for intellectual property enforcement, further boost international exchanges and cooperation, and serve high-level opening-up to the outside world.

(Source: official website of the State Administration for Market Regulation)

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