There are only face towels and storage boxes in the live broadcast room, but in the background, digital links are used to correspond to counterfeit cosmetics; data is stored in the cloud and evidence is destroyed remotely with one click, making law enforcement and evidence collection even more difficult... At the 2nd International Exchange Conference on Intellectual Property Law Enforcement held recently in Changsha, Hunan, the top ten cases of administrative enforcement of intellectual property rights in China from 2025 to 2026 were announced.
It can be seen from these cases that the current infringement methods in the field of intellectual property are more complex and hidden, which brings new challenges to law enforcement. What tricks do these infringing "variants" play? How do law enforcement agencies "dispose of tricks at first sight"? How to further tighten the regulatory defense line?
Infringement methods are constantly being renovated and concealment is significantly enhanced.
Intellectual property infringement erodes the roots of innovation and disrupts the market order of fair competition. In the latest batch of typical cases announced, infringement behavior has derived new characteristics and trends: technical means have become complex, the infringement chain has become industrialized, and the concealment and confrontational nature of illegal acts have increased significantly.
——The "live broadcast traffic + private domain transaction" model in live broadcast sales makes it difficult for supervision to penetrate. A case investigated in Xuancheng City, Anhui Province, showed that criminals sold counterfeit goods through "live broadcast traffic + private domain transactions". Only daily necessities were displayed in the live broadcast room. Counterfeit cosmetics were linked with digital numbers in the background, code words were used to refer to brands, and more than 20 accounts were opened using multiple business licenses. "The triple invisibility of transactions, products, and shop owners has brought many obstacles to law enforcement." said a relevant case handler from the Xuancheng City Market Supervision Bureau.
——New methods such as cloud storage and remote destruction of evidence increase the difficulty of evidence collection. In the "Hermès" trademark infringement case investigated and handled in Suzhou, Jiangsu, the infringing gang used cloud storage data, remote destruction of evidence and other methods to resist the investigation, which was extremely concealed. In the "Huawei" trademark infringement case investigated in Shenzhen, Guangdong, the gang involved circumvented local supervision by falsely registering shell companies, dynamically changing access links, and setting regional IP access restrictions.
——Infringements are "broken into parts" across regions, making it difficult for supervision to find a breakthrough point. In the "ABB" trademark infringement case investigated and handled in Xiamen, Fujian, the companies involved in the case "separated production and sales, and separated locations" to form a complete infringement chain of "assembly and processing - labeling and packaging - external sales", trying to "break the whole into parts" to disperse the illegal risks.
Yang Dong, dean of the School of Law at Renmin University of China, said that these new trends show that intellectual property infringement has evolved from single and fragmented to cross-regional, chain-based and intelligent. In particular, the rapid development of new business formats such as live streaming e-commerce has brought new challenges to intellectual property law enforcement.
New business formats bring new challenges and law enforcement methods are iteratively upgraded
In the recently launched national unified destruction operation of infringing, counterfeit and shoddy goods in 2026, more than 200 varieties of infringing, counterfeit and shoddy goods, including food and medicine, clothing, shoes and hats, tobacco and alcohol, cosmetics, and pirated publications, with a total volume of 4,938 tons and a value of about 858 million yuan, were destroyed in a centralized manner, involving many well-known domestic and foreign brands.
Faced with new variants and new challenges in intellectual property infringement, law enforcement methods are being iteratively upgraded simultaneously.
The reporter learned that the development of new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and big data, while making it easier for more online merchants to improve content creation and operating efficiency, has also brought about infringement, counterfeiting, and false marketing behaviors such as unauthorized restoration of celebrity images or voices through AI, misappropriation of well-known brands or live broadcast clips for collage editing.
Judging from the typical cases announced this time, my country's intellectual property law enforcement is responding to the challenges of new business formats with more professional technology, closer coordination, and more severe crackdowns, and effectively safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of rights holders and consumers.
Technology enables evidence collection to be faster and more professional. Law enforcement agencies have strengthened digital evidence collection, and disconnecting the network to solidify evidence and quickly sealing it have become common methods. In the "ABB" trademark infringement case investigated and handled by Xiamen City, law enforcement officers immediately registered and saved the computers, mobile phones and other electronic devices of the managers involved, entrusted professional institutions to carry out electronic data extraction, fixed sales orders, transaction ledgers, business communication records and other core evidence, effectively solving the pain points of evidence collection.
The connection of cross-regional and cross-department law enforcement will be smoother. "Administrative investigation + criminal investigation + prosecutorial supervision" work together to help solve cases efficiently. Relying on the "market supervision + public security" joint investigation mechanism, Xuancheng City targeted abandoned office buildings through details such as window frames and bamboo forests in the live broadcast screen, and finally closed the network in Jinhua, Zhejiang, cutting off the entire chain of "upstream warehousing - live broadcast traffic diversion - private domain transactions - terminal counterfeit sales".
Since the "14th Five-Year Plan", my country has completed a new round of comprehensive revision of the patent law, promoted a new round of comprehensive revision of the trademark law, continued to intensify administrative enforcement of intellectual property rights, and gradually formed a protection network covering system construction, law enforcement and case handling, and cross-departmental linkage.
System construction closely follows practical needs. The newly revised Trademark Law clearly cracks down on “scheming trademarks” and curbs malicious registrations. The detailed law enforcement rules and judgment standards for new business formats such as live streaming e-commerce and cross-border e-commerce are constantly being refined.
The efficiency of law enforcement and case handling continues to improve. Relevant departments keep a close eye on outstanding issues such as trademark infringement and counterfeit products, and continuously deploy special law enforcement actions such as "Iron Fist" and "Qinglang". During the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, market supervision departments investigated and dealt with 218,900 cases of trademark infringement and counterfeit patents. In the first half of this year, they carried out about 28,000 law enforcement actions against key physical markets with high incidences of infringement and counterfeiting, forming a strong deterrent to infringement and counterfeiting.
In view of the long and cross-regional characteristics of intellectual property case chains, market supervision, public security, procuratorial and other agencies have established clue notification and case transfer mechanisms, from one-way transfer to two-way connection, from individual operations to collaborative efforts, to solve the regulatory problem of working alone.
How to strengthen intellectual property protection from an international perspective?
The "15th Five-Year Plan" for the Protection and Utilization of Intellectual Property clearly proposes to strengthen the protection of foreign-related intellectual property rights. From an international perspective, how to consolidate intellectual property protection is an urgent issue that needs further development.
In 2025, an official notification submitted by China and forwarded by Interpol was placed on the desk of the Malaysian Ministry of Health. The notice showed that six online stores on the cross-border e-commerce platform Shopee were suspected of infringing on the registered trademark of Yunnan Baiyao. With the cooperation of the three parties, law enforcement officers successfully seized offline infringing goods and targeted illegal entities, thus protecting Chinese brands overseas.
While helping Chinese companies “go global”, China also treats foreign companies in China based on the principle of equal protection. Among the cases announced this time, there are many cases where the rights and interests of foreign companies in China are protected. Many international brands such as Hermès and Patagonia have safeguarded their legitimate rights and interests through China's law enforcement.
The State Administration for Market Regulation issued the "Opinions on Strengthening the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights in the New Era", proposing to "equally protect the intellectual property rights of domestic and foreign-funded enterprises in accordance with the law"; deployed a two-year special law enforcement action to "protect intellectual property rights", and clearly stated that "centering on high-level opening up, severely investigate and punish illegal acts that infringe on the intellectual property rights of foreign-invested enterprises"; the enforcement of intellectual property rights in key areas was included in the "Iron Fist" operation to investigate cases in the field of people's livelihood, and investigated a number of major cases...
According to the relevant person in charge of the State Administration for Market Regulation, a fair and just intellectual property protection system has greatly boosted the confidence of foreign investors in investing in China. Precisely because of the equal and open market atmosphere from my country's intellectual property enforcement, Epiroc Group from Sweden invested an additional US$7 million to establish a Gaia brand sales company in Nanjing, which became a vivid example of foreign investment's optimism about China's business environment.
"The digital transformation of the economy has brought many challenges to intellectual property protection, and international cooperation is the key to meeting these challenges." Edward Kwakwa, Assistant Director-General of the World Intellectual Property Organization, said that international cooperation is indispensable, whether it is exploring new law enforcement tools or improving cross-border law enforcement capabilities.
During the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, in the face of new situations and new challenges, how should intellectual property protection be exerted? Relevant departments and industry insiders said that it is necessary to promote the formation of synergy in governance from various aspects such as system construction and social co-governance.
On the one hand, we should systematically design the top-level institutional system for intellectual property protection and thoroughly implement the strategy of strengthening the country through intellectual property rights. Adapt to the requirements of the new situation, focus on emerging fields and e-commerce fields, and continue to establish and improve relevant laws, regulations and institutional systems.
On the other hand, we will continue to increase law enforcement efforts and resolutely crack down on infringement, counterfeiting, illegal activities and criminal activities. At the same time, for new economic formats such as live streaming, we will deepen government-enterprise collaboration, strengthen e-commerce platform responsibilities, and promote social co-governance against infringement and counterfeiting.
At the same time, we will take more practical measures to deepen cross-border law enforcement cooperation. The person in charge of the Law Enforcement and Inspection Bureau of the State Administration for Market Regulation said that in the next step, the State Administration for Market Regulation will focus on cracking down on malicious transnational trademark squatting and transnational intellectual property infringement, promote the establishment of a practical and effective international cooperation mechanism, and support the sustainable development of Chinese enterprises overseas and foreign investment in China.
New "variants" are emerging one after another, new challenges are coming one after another, and intellectual property protection takes a long time to succeed. As a major intellectual property country, my country is using a more complete system, more powerful law enforcement, and a more open attitude to equally protect the legitimate rights and interests of domestic and foreign business entities, weave a dense intellectual property protection network, and build a solid foundation for innovative development.
"Xinhua Viewpoint" reporters Li Qianwei Zhao Yining
Source: Economic Information Daily
