As the core mechanism for protecting human intellectual achievements and promoting the prosperity of the commodity economy, intellectual property rights often resonate with changes in regional economic forms. Zhejiang, as an important commodity trade, manufacturing hinterland and digital economic highland in China and even the world, its attitude towards innovation and business order is highly representative of the times. From the "copyright statement" that sprouted in Hangzhou's woodblock printing industry during the Southern Song Dynasty, to the inheritance of geographical indications that became famous at home and abroad during the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China; from the persistent pursuit of technology patents by Zhejiang enterprises at the beginning of the reform and opening up in 1985, to the transformation of Yiwu's small commodity market from "chicken feathers for sugar" to the nirvana of global compliant trade; to Alibaba's platform co-governance model in the digital economy era and the output of global rules by the Hangzhou Internet Court, Zhejiang's intellectual property story is a history of the evolution of business civilization that spans thousands of years. This report aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the occurrence and development of intellectual property rights in Zhejiang and its reshaping logic in the context of globalization and digitalization through detailed historical materials and modern judicial and business cases.
The Awakening of Property Rights in Ancient Commercial Civilization: From Engraving and Printing to Classical Copyright Awareness
Although the modern written legal system of intellectual property rights is an import from modern times, in areas where the commodity economy was highly prosperous in ancient China, the endogenous need to protect intellectual achievements and business reputation had already sprouted. Zhejiang has become one of the core birthplaces of early intellectual property awareness in China due to its superior geographical location and profound cultural heritage, especially the dual cultural and commercial prosperity brought about by the establishment of Hangzhou as the capital of the Southern Song Dynasty.
The prosperity of the book engraving industry in Hangzhou during the Song Dynasty and the protection mechanism of "brand records"
The Song Dynasty was the peak of ancient Chinese culture and commercial development. The popularization and maturity of woodblock printing gave birth to a large and prosperous publishing market. As the political and cultural centre of the Southern Song Dynasty, Hangzhou and its surrounding areas gathered a large number of literati and calligraphers. During this historical period, books were not only carriers of cultural inheritance, but also circulating commodities with extremely high economic value, which directly gave rise to early demands for copyright protection and commercial anti-counterfeiting awareness.
Historical documents and existing ancient books show that in the book "Eastern Capital History" published in the Southern Song Dynasty, there was a statement called "Pai Ji" printed on the front of the table of contents: "Published by Meishan Chengshe Renzhai, I have applied to my superiors and are not allowed to overwrite the board." 1 The "overlay" here refers to unauthorised copying and piracy. This "brand mark" is not only an advertisement for the publisher to show the authentic source to buyers, but also a legal statement that clearly applies to the local government (superior) for copyright protection. It aims to establish the exclusive publishing rights of the book through administrative power and prohibit unauthorised commercial reproduction by others. This combination of prior reporting and subsequent punishment reflected that Hangzhou booksellers at that time had a very clear awareness of the protection of intangible assets, and formed the prototype of ancient China's copyright protection system.
In addition, in order to establish brand barriers, bookstores at that time began to embed advertisements emphasizing quality and uniqueness in printed matter. For example, during the Northern Song Dynasty, the "Liu Jia Kung Fu Needle Shop" in Jinan had advertisements printed on copper plates, while the "Shen Erlang Jingfang" in Hangzhou during the Southern Song Dynasty also detailed its fine printing, precise proofreading, and high-quality paper in its publication advertisements, reminding customers to "look around for customers and look for the name of our shop." 2 This commercial practice of distinguishing the source of goods through "brand value" has essentially fulfilled the dual functions of "indicating the source of goods" and "quality assurance" in the modern trademark rights system.
Infringement chaos and the emphasis on authors’ personal rights during the Ming and Qing Dynasties
However, along with high profits comes increasingly rampant piracy. In ancient times, when there was a lack of a unified national law enforcement system and modern intellectual property concepts, it was difficult to completely curb infringement simply relying on administrative bans from local governments. Piracy in ancient times is mainly divided into three forms: one is reprinting, that is, re-engraving the original version and selling it; the other is piracy by changing the title or name; the third is counterfeiting, that is, forgery is published in the name of a celebrity 2.
During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the infringement crisis encountered by the famous scholar Li Yu in the book market in Hangzhou and surrounding areas is a typical slice of the classical copyright game. Because Li Yu's works are so popular in the market, they have become a "cash cow" in the eyes of pirates. These pirated books not only flooded the markets around Hangzhou, but also covered the major book markets outside Hangzhou. Booksellers made huge profits from them and caused great damage to Li Yu's economic interests. 1 What is even more serious is that a large number of counterfeit and pirated works have appeared on the market. Some books that were not originally created by Li Yu have also been signed as "Li Weng on the Lake" to make huge profits1. This behaviour not only deprives the original author of financial returns, but also seriously infringes on the author's right of signature and integrity of the work (i.e., personal rights in modern copyright law), and damages his personal reputation. This historical case profoundly shows that although early copyright protection has taken shape, due to the lack of systematic legal rights confirmation and cross-regional jurisdiction capabilities, the game between cultural creators and pirates has always been in an unequal tug-of-war.
The centuries-old ups and downs of traditional industries and the modern revaluation of geographical indications
In the era of agriculture and traditional handicrafts, the natural endowments, climatic conditions and unique craftsmanship of a specific region condensed into another form of intellectual property - Geographical Indications. Geographical indications are not only proof of a product’s origin, but also a legal guarantee of quality, reputation and other characteristics. Zhejiang's "Shaoxing Rice Wine" and "West Lake Longjing" are outstanding representatives. Their historical evolution profoundly reveals how traditional industries rely on the property rights system to achieve brand premiums and international leaps.
Shaoxing Rice Wine: From Historical Classic to China’s First Geographical Indication Product
Shaoxing rice wine bears the honor of being China's first geographical indication product, and its formation has its own profound material foundation and historical and cultural heritage. According to research, rice wine is the oldest of the three ancient wines in the world, with a history of more than 7,000 years, earlier than wine and beer 3. The earliest records of Shaoxing rice wine can be found in ancient classics such as "Lu's Spring and Autumn Annals", "Jinlouzi", and "Kuiji County Chronicles".
The excellent quality of geographical indication products is highly dependent on the specific natural environment and ecological system (the so-called "terroir"). Shaoxing rice wine is an open natural fermentation wine. Its brewing processes such as soaking rice, steaming rice, and fermenting are closely related to the local climate and microbial environment of Shaoxing, especially the water source of the Jianhu Lake system. An ancient saying goes, "In the mountains and rivers between Kuaiji, water is the most suitable for wine, but if it is relocated, it cannot be good." This accurately summarizes the core logic of geographical indications 3. Due to slight differences in brewery location and craftsmanship, Shaoxing wine is even subdivided into two major schools: the "Xibang" in the west of the city (Dongpu, Ruanshe, etc.) and the "Dongbang" in the east (Doumen, Taoyan, etc.). 3
In modern times, the branding and internationalization process of Shaoxing rice wine has accelerated significantly. During the Qing Dynasty, it was listed as one of the top ten famous products in the country; in 1915, Shaoxing rice wine won the gold medal at the Panama International Exposition and entered the international stage; in 1949, it became the wine used for the "First Banquet of the Founding of the People's Republic of China"; and in 1952, it ranked among the eight famous wines at China's first wine tasting conference. After entering the modern market economy, "Ner'erhong" and "Tapai" have become iconic trademarks of Shaoxing rice wine. In order to protect these time-honored brands that have gone through vicissitudes of life, the modern judicial system has given strong support. For example, the Shaoxing Intermediate People's Court held a court hearing on the trademark dispute between "Nerrhong" and "Tapai" and related operating departments, and used Weibo live broadcast for the first time to introduce public supervision. This not only clarified specific trademark rights, but also declared to the whole society that it safeguarded the brand value of historical classic industries. 4
West Lake Longjing and time-honored brands break out overseas
Similar to Shaoxing rice wine, Hangzhou’s “West Lake Longjing”, as China’s top green tea representative, has long faced a serious “tragedy of the commons.” Due to the lack of a strict geographical indication certification and protection mechanism in the early years, the name "West Lake Longjing" was freely abused in the market, and inferior tea from non-origin areas was sold under the brand name, resulting in uneven product quality. 5 This kind of imitation of famous brands has not only caused huge economic losses to local legal tea farmers and tea companies in Hangzhou, but also seriously overdrawn the reputation of "West Lake Longjing".
In order to reverse this situation, Hangzhou City adopted a decisive intellectual property strategy - applying for and strictly managing the "West Lake Longjing" geographical indication certification trademark 5. By establishing unified planting standards, picking specifications and frying techniques, geographical indication certification marks on the one hand provide consumers with a legal basis for identifying product authenticity; on the other hand, they use legal means to severely crack down on free-riding behaviour in the market, thus greatly reshaping and enhancing the high-end brand image of "West Lake Longjing".
Today, with the joint promotion of the government and customs, Zhejiang's "time-honored brands" such as silk, tea, rice wine, and celadon are relying on the intellectual property system to expand overseas markets. In the first half of 2024, Zhejiang's rice wine exports reached 63.2 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.33%; tea exports reached 1.29 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.12% 6. Time-honored enterprises are using the Madrid international trademark registration platform to speed up defensive registration overseas, moving from a domestic market defence battle to a global intellectual property battle 6.
| Zhejiang’s historical classic industries and geographical indications | Historical status and honor nodes | Core property rights protection mechanism and effectiveness |
|---|---|---|
| Shaoxing Yellow Wine | 7,000 years of history, Panama Gold Medal in 1915, the first eight national famous wines in 1952 3 | Establishing China's first geographical indication product; dividing the core production areas of "Dongbang/Xibang"; judicially strictly protecting trademark rights such as "Nervhong" and "Tapai" 3 |
| West Lake Longjing | Representative of China's high-end green tea, historical tribute tea | Register a geographical indication certification trademark, standardize the anti-counterfeiting traceability system, curb fraudulent use outside the production area, recover economic losses and establish a brand image 5 |
| Zhejiang Time-honored Brands (Comprehensive) | Including silk, tea, rice wine, wood carvings, Chinese medicinal materials, etc. 6 | Madrid international trademark defensive registration; rice wine exports increased by 14.33% and tea exports by 14.12% in the first half of 2024, realizing the global realization of cultural assets 6 |
The Nirvana of the Real Economy: Patent Initiative and Compliance Advancement of Yiwu Model
If ancient brand names and traditional geographical indications are the classical music of Zhejiang’s intellectual property rights, then the rise of physical commerce and industrial upgrading after the reform and opening up have played a strong role in the construction of a modern intellectual property system. From the persistence of Zhejiang enterprises in acquiring the first batch of patents in 1985 to the Yiwu small commodity market’s transition from barbaric growth to global trade rules, the history of this period has profoundly revealed the inherent causal relationship between property rights protection and the transformation of the real economy.
The Awakening in 1985: Zhejiang’s first modern patent solution
1985 was a landmark year for the construction of China's modern intellectual property system. In this year, the Patent Law of the People's Republic of China was officially implemented. Against this macro background, Zhejiang private enterprises have taken the lead in showing their desire for core technologies and their keen sense of intellectual property rights.
The transformation story of East Zhejiang Building Materials Group is a microcosm of this era. In 1985, founder Qiu Fenglei's father started this concrete company with 50,000 yuan in entrepreneurial capital and 20 workers 7. In the early stages of development, the company quickly occupied a leading position in Zhejiang Province by introducing prestressed concrete pipe pile technology from Japan, and enjoyed the early dividends brought by the introduction of technology. However, due to the lack of barrier protection from core patents, this business model is easily copied. In just a few years, similar companies have sprung up like mushrooms after a rain. By the end of 2008, the number of companies producing prestressed concrete pipe piles in Zhejiang Province had rapidly expanded to nearly a hundred 7 . The industry has fallen into a quagmire of severe homogeneous competition and mutual price reduction. Zhejiang Building Materials even loses 30 to 40 million yuan in profits every year because it adheres to high standards. 7
Under the pressure of "there is no way out without transformation," Qiu Fenglei realized deeply: "Competitiveness does not mean large land, many employees, and heavy equipment. The core competitiveness of an enterprise in the future lies in independent innovation." 7 In order to break through the technical bottleneck, the company turned its attention to Dr. Zhang Rihong, who served as technical director at a famous Japanese pipe pile company. After many visits to Japan and sincere "three visits to the thatched cottage", we finally successfully introduced this top talent in the industry 7. This incident is not only a successful case of a single enterprise transforming from scale expansion to technology-driven transformation, but also marks the beginning of a new stage in Zhejiang's physical manufacturing industry, which has shifted from relying on demographic dividends and pure technological imitation to relying on independent research and development and patent layout as its core competitiveness.
The institutional evolution of the “Yiwu Model”: from “chicken feathers for sugar” to “digital chain global”
Compared with the asset-heavy manufacturing industry, the Yiwu Small Commodity Market, which focuses on trade circulation, has seen a more difficult and eventful transformation in intellectual property protection.
Yiwu is located in a barren land with "seven mountains, two rivers and one farmland" and lacks natural resources. In the early years, local farmers carried "sugar burdens" on their shoulders during the off-farm season, shook rattles, and exchanged brown sugar for chicken feathers and scrap copper and iron, forming the "sugar gang" with a long history. 8. On December 1, 1980, Yiwu issued its first business licence numbered 001, marking the official start of the small commodity market; the opening of the Huqingmen small department store market in 1982 completely activated the commercial genes of Yiwu people. 9
In the initial stage of market development, extensive growth is the main theme. In order to quickly seize market share, low-end manufacturing and imitation have become popular. Yiwu was once plagued by the proliferation of infringement and counterfeit goods10. The negative label of "counterfeit goods distribution center" not only severely compresses the profit margins of merchants, but also becomes a fatal obstacle for Yiwu to deeply integrate into the global supply chain and achieve international leap.
Faced with this life-and-death bottleneck, Yiwu city managers and market operators reached a consensus: "Protecting intellectual property rights and displaying a good new image of Yiwu is our common pursuit" 10. In order to completely eradicate the stubborn problem of infringement, Yiwu has built a strict three-dimensional and grid-based intellectual property management system:
1. Global sinking of the supervision network: Intellectual property liaison officers have been set up in 13 towns (streets), major markets and 24 functional departments in the city to build a supervision network with no dead ends. At the same time, the country’s first intellectual property service centre established by a county-level city was established to directly accept and mediate infringement disputes at the front end of the market and provide rights protection assistance 10.
2. Institutional blockade at key nodes: The "Several Opinions on Further Promoting the Internationalization of Brands" and the "Measures for the Protection of Intellectual Property Rights in Yiwu Exhibitions" were issued. Exhibitions are the core node for large-scale exposure and trading of goods. Seizing this key link of exhibitions can block the display and outflow of infringing goods from the source 10.
3. Industry self-discipline and credit bundling: The Yiwu International Trade City Intellectual Property Dispute Mediation Committee was established, and the first intellectual property training system and infringement credit assessment system for market operators were launched. Guide high-risk industries such as handicrafts, cosmetics, bras, underwear, and watches to establish industry intellectual property protection conventions, and directly link intellectual property compliance with merchants' credit ratings and living space 10.
4. Coordination of administration and justice: Regularly carry out joint law enforcement and special rights protection actions, improve regulatory coordination in the import and export links, and form a comprehensive governance mechanism for joint management 10.
A strong protection mechanism not only purifies the market, but also greatly stimulates the innovative vitality of market entities. Data confirms this qualitative change: In the first half of 2013, Yiwu City submitted 4,475 patent applications and obtained 2,165 patents, both hitting a record high10. Today, after six generations of market iteration, Yiwu has more than 1.2 million market operators (accounting for 6% of the country's total), and its products are sold to more than 210 countries and regions around the world 8. The new generation of Yiwu merchants are skillfully using cutting-edge technologies such as AI digital people and cross-border live streaming to promote trade upgrades. Yiwu has truly completed a historic leap from "road market" to "world supermarket" to "digital chain global" 9.
Governance revolution in digital space: Alibaba’s platform co-governance and technology empowerment
With the explosion of Internet technology, Zhejiang is not only a centre for physical commerce, but has also become the absolute core of China's digital economy. While e-commerce breaks geographical restrictions on commodity circulation and greatly improves the efficiency of resource allocation, it also makes the manufacturing, cross-regional circulation and sales of counterfeit goods more hidden, fragmented and complex. As one of the world's largest retail platforms, Alibaba faces an unprecedented and historic issue: "How to protect intellectual property rights and combat counterfeiting in the new economy?" 11
From "safe haven" to taking the initiative: "Treat fakes like drunk driving"
Globally, e-commerce platforms have long followed the conventional logic of “active notification by rights holders and passive deletion by the platform” (i.e., the safe harbor principle)12. However, in the face of China's huge and complex sinking manufacturing capacity, this passive defence mechanism seems to be stretched thin. In December 2016, the Office of the United States Trade Representative (USTR) issued a Section 301 report on intellectual property protection, once again including Taobao on the "notorious market" blacklist 11. This external impact has completely accelerated the strategic restructuring of Alibaba's governance system.
In early 2017, Alibaba's top executives issued a public statement, clearly proposing the strategic policy of "treating counterfeit goods like drunk driving," marking a complete shift in the platform's zero-tolerance approach to infringement and crackdowns at the source 11 . In order to demonstrate this determination, Alibaba took the lead in the country and fired the first initiative of the platform: In January 2017, Alibaba sued an online store owner who sold counterfeit Swarovski watches on the grounds of "violating the platform's agreement not to sell counterfeit goods and infringing on the platform's goodwill" and claiming 1.4 million yuan, setting a precedent for a domestic e-commerce platform to sue the owner of a counterfeit store. 11 In February of the same year, Alibaba issued a "blocking order" against "intellectual property gangsters" who were actually engaging in extortion in the name of rights protection; in the previous year, the platform found 5,862 malicious complaint accounts, causing sellers to lose 107 million yuan, and malicious complaints accounted for as high as 24%11. Through two-way cleanup, Alibaba has greatly reshaped the bottom line of the platform’s business environment.
The game between computing power and algorithms: "Intellectual property protection technology brain"
Infringement and anti-infringement in the digital era are essentially a game of computing power, data and algorithms. Simply relying on manual inspections has long been unable to cope with the massive amount of goods. Relying on its profound technological accumulation, Alibaba has gradually built and opened its "technological brain for intellectual property protection" to the whole society 12.
This system, which won the Science and Technology Innovation Award from national ministries and commissions, integrates the massive online and offline anti-counterfeiting signature database and algorithm technology accumulated by Alibaba in the past 20 years. Its total sample data is equivalent to the collection of 186 National Libraries of China12. Through core technologies such as semantic sentiment analysis, merchant panoramic view, and live broadcast prevention and control system, the brain achieves millisecond-level real-time interception of suspected infringing links. In actual combat, its effectiveness is astonishing: in 2018, 96% of suspected fake links were "quick-killed" before any sales were generated, and the number of links actively deleted by the platform due to suspected infringement dropped significantly by 67%; at the same time, there were only 1.11 suspected fakes for every 10,000 orders 14.
Entering 2025, with the popularization of generative AI, the prevention and control system will further move towards the dual drive of "data + intelligence". Taotian Group's original protection platform has protected more than 950 million pictures, over 180 million short videos, and one million design manuscripts. The rate of repeated infringement of the same product has been suppressed to 0.175%. Complaints about counterfeit products on the platform have dropped significantly by 58.5% year-on-year 15.
AACA Alliance: A closed loop of diverse co-governance ecology
The platform is well aware that the roots of counterfeit goods are deeply rooted in the offline physical industry chain, and simple online blocking can only cure the symptoms. Counterfeit goods will still flow across borders and on multiple platforms 13. In order to completely cut off the gray and black industry chain, Alibaba initiated the establishment of the "Alibaba Anti-Counterfeiting Alliance" (AACA) in January 2017. It is committed to combining innovative Internet technologies with the professional knowledge of brand rights holders, linking law enforcement agencies, and promoting the formation of an anti-counterfeiting co-governance system of "law enforcement + platform + brand rights holders" 14.
AACA breaks down the barriers and information islands between enterprises, and achieves cross-border and cross-industry resource collaboration. As of the end of 2018, AACA has rapidly expanded from 30 brands when it was founded to 121 brands in 16 countries and regions around the world; by 2019, it has attracted more than 450 well-known brands such as Nestlé, Moutai, LV, and Apple to join 12. Through the upgrade and data exchange of the "Queqiao Project", Alibaba actively pushed clues to the police that reached the starting point of false accusations. Throughout 2018, 1,634 clues were pushed, 1,953 suspects were arrested, and 7.9 billion yuan was involved in tracing the case. Among them, in the widely watched "first case of cross-border pursuit and anti-counterfeiting," the police worked closely with Alibaba and the brand, and it took 48 days to chase back a counterfeit-selling influencer who had fled overseas and destroyed evidence, creating a classic battle of the whole society's joint anti-counterfeiting campaign 14.
What’s more profound is that AACA’s positioning is evolving from a single “anti-counterfeiting prevention and control” to “empowering brand innovation”. The alliance has established a Small and Medium Enterprises Advisory Committee (SAC) to empower small and medium-sized enterprises such as Huaxizi, Perfect Diary, and People’s Wine with its protection experience in cooperation with international brands, providing them with full-link support from professional guidance, improving rights protection efficiency to intellectual property protection 17. As of November 2025, Taotian Group's intellectual property protection platform has more than 820,000 rights holders, protecting more than 1.51 million rights around the world; more than 300 new brands have participated in the excellence support program, achieving a 97% pass rate for brand integrity complaints, driving GMV to grow by 1.5 billion yuan, truly realizing a "win-win" between innovation protection and business growth 15.
| Development stages of Alibaba’s intellectual property governance | Core concepts and landmark events | Technical foundation and governance achievements |
|---|---|---|
| Passive response period (until 2016) | Follow the internationally accepted principle of "rights holder notification-platform deletion" 12 | Encountered malicious complaints and harassment from intellectual property hooligans; USTR issued a blacklist to put pressure 11 |
| Active Counterattack Period (2017-2019) | "Treat counterfeit goods like drunk driving"; China's first prosecution of counterfeit shop owners 11 | Launched the "Intellectual Property Protection Technology Brain"; 96% of suspected infringement links were "killed"; established the AACA alliance to coordinate offline campaigns 12 |
| Intelligent Co-Governance Empowerment Period (2020-2025) | Two-wheel drive of innovation protection and infringement management; the establishment of the Small and Medium Enterprises Advisory Committee (SAC) to empower innovation 17 | AI large model reshapes governance; more than 820,000 rights holders have settled in, and more than 950 million pictures have been protected; the repeat infringement rate of the same product has dropped to 0.175% 15 |
Subversion and reconstruction of the judicial paradigm: Hangzhou Internet Court’s export of global rules
The rapid advancement of technology continues to blur the boundaries of rights. When new things such as AI-generated content (AIGC), non-fungible tokens (NFT), and virtual digital people emerge like a tsunami, the statutory intellectual property laws based on traditional physical space and physical media often reveal obvious lags. Against this grand background, on August 18, 2017, the Hangzhou Internet Court, the world's first Internet court approved by the Central Leading Group for Comprehensively Deepening Reform, was officially put into operation 19.
Its core mission is not only to resolve disputes, but also to "explore case litigation rules" and "promote the legalization of cyberspace governance" in the Internet environment, providing Chinese samples and Chinese standards for global Internet governance19.
Digital transition of the underlying review mechanism
The primary institutional innovation of Hangzhou Internet Court is the digitization of the entire litigation process. It pioneered the country's first online litigation platform and "asynchronous trial model", breaking the time and space restrictions of traditional litigation requiring "simultaneous attendance in court" and "physical presence"21. The parties and lawyers can complete prosecution, case filing and court hearing asynchronously without leaving home, even during non-working hours (such as early morning hours). The "first case" heard on the day the court was unveiled was the author of "The Legend of the Empress of the Harem" suing NetEase for infringement of information network dissemination rights. The plaintiff and defendant were located in Hangzhou and Beijing. The case was concluded in just half an hour through a remote online trial, truly turning "online disputes online" into a reality 21.
In response to the pain points of electronic evidence in online intellectual property cases that are “easy to tamper with, difficult to store, and expensive to obtain,” the court took the lead in deeply connecting the judicial blockchain with the electronic evidence storage platform. The parties only need to provide the order number or account name, and the system can extract the raw data as irrefutable evidence21. At the same time, relying on the funnel-shaped online diversified conflict resolution system, big data "algorithms" are introduced to calculate the optimal mediation plan for the parties. Data confirms the huge effectiveness of this model: from January 2018 to March 2024, the court concluded a total of 29,827 online intellectual property cases (including more than 25,000 online copyright cases), with an online trial rate as high as 98.2%, the average court hearing time of cases is only 32 minutes, and the average trial days have stabilized at around 53 days, which has greatly reduced the cost of rights protection for the entire society 21.
Iconic Referee Rules Defining the Digital Frontier
The more far-reaching impact is that in the face of gray areas where the law is blank or controversial, the Hangzhou Internet Court has exported a judicial rule system that takes into account technological innovation and rights protection to the world through a series of first-time and difficult cases.
1\. Legal characterization of NFT digital works: Reshaping virtual property rules In the country's first infringement case involving "NFT digital works" (Qizedie v. Yuan Yuzhou Company), the key question facing the court is: Does casting and selling NFT digital works constitute infringement? If so, what rights are violated? The court clearly defined after trial that the casting and publishing of NFT digital works is essentially placing them in a public Internet environment so that unspecified members of the public can obtain the works at a selected time and place. This behaviour is in line with the characteristics of "information network dissemination behavior" in the Copyright Law 23. At the same time, the judgment pointed out that NFT works belong to online virtual property, and what is transferred in transactions are property rights rather than traditional property rights, and the principle of "one-time exhaustion of distribution rights" does not apply. This judgment requires NFT trading platforms (such as Bigverse) to perform a higher duty of review and attention to the digital works cast on their platforms that matches their profit model and technical control, and delineates a legal red line for the construction of a transparent and credible new blockchain digital asset business format 23.
2\. The Responsibility Boundary of AIGC Platform: The Balance between Technical Inclusion and Copyright Protection With the explosion of generative artificial intelligence, disputes over the use of AI fine-tuning models to generate infringing images are increasing day by day. In Shanghai Xinchuanghua v. an intelligent technology company in Hangzhou (Ultraman LoRA model infringement case), the plaintiff alleged that the AI platform operated by the defendant allowed users to upload training images, and generated images that were substantially similar to "Ultraman" through the Checkpoint basic model and LoRA fine-tuning technology, which constituted infringement 25. The court showed a high degree of professional foresight in its ruling: First of all, it was clear that the provision of generative AI technology services is different from traditional network storage or search link services. Although the defendant, as a tool provider, did not directly infringe, the platform has a reasonable duty of care for IPs such as Ultraman, which have a high global reputation. 26 More importantly, the court established a dynamic liability determination framework - considering multiple factors such as the service provider's profit model, the popularity of the copyrighted works, the obviousness of the infringement facts, the current development level of AI technology, the feasibility and cost of alternative designs, etc., in order to avoid setting review obligations too high and stifling the innovative development of emerging technologies 26 . This judgment not only punishes infringement, but also gives the underlying large model technology the necessary room for trial and error.
3\. Overlapping rights of virtual and reality: confusion between virtual digital people and virtual goods In the field of virtual reality, the Hangzhou Internet Court has also repeatedly set precedents. In the country's first "virtual digital human case", the court for the first time accurately defined the ownership of copyright and neighboring rights of ontology developers, operators, and "people in the middle" (actors behind the scenes) in the entire virtual digital human chain from creation to operation, and clarified the ownership logic of performer rights in virtual space 22. In a reverse confusion trademark infringement dispute involving game car virtual props, the court broke through the limitations of traditional commodity classifications and conducted an in-depth analysis of the overlap between the functional uses and audience groups of car virtual vehicles in games and real car products. The judgment pointed out that although virtual props serve the game experience, they are related in display appearance and attracting specific consumers, which may cause public confusion about the specific commercial connection between the two. This case provides important guidance for carefully weighing the interests of trademark owners and technology users in reverse confusion judgments and preventing the abuse of rights 27 .
4\. Establishment of data rights and interests boundaries In the first data product dispute case in the country, the court clarified the intricate data rights and interests boundaries between platform operators, data crawling developers and underlying users through precedents. For the first time, it was judicially confirmed that data product developers enjoy "competitive property rights and interests" in their legally collected and processed data sets, and are strictly protected by the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, laying a solid legal foundation for the market-oriented transfer and commercial realization of the data element market 21.
Comprehensive modernization of administrative management mechanisms: from paper certificates to one-stop processing
The innovation of judicial and business ecology is inseparable from the efficient support of the underlying administrative management system. In recent years, Zhejiang has been at the forefront of the country in implementing the State Intellectual Property Office's deepening of "decentralization, regulation and services" reform and promoting "Internet + government services".
The digital transformation of intellectual property administration is reshaping the process of confirming and proving rights. In 2018, the national trademark online service system was fully launched and operational, enabling the electronic delivery of other trademark documents in addition to trademark registration certificates 30 . As of January 1, 2022, the State Intellectual Property Office officially announced that it will completely stop issuing paper trademark registration certificates and replace them with electronic trademark registration certificates with the same legal effect30. Applicants no longer need to travel back and forth. They can directly view, download and print electronic certificates through the China Trademark Network or related online service systems (such as the Ningbo Trademark Acceptance Window online channel) with the extraction code 30.
This “paper certificate” that has completely withdrawn from the stage of history is not only a symbol, it also marks the full realization of the “one-stop service” for the entire process of trademark application and registration30. From the Zhejiang Provincial Intellectual Property Protection Center's standardized review guidance for the "Patent Agency Power of Attorney" in patent applications 32 to the convenient online application channel for 45 categories of trademark registration 31 , the jump in administrative efficiency has opened up the "last mile" for service innovation entities. This "one network, one door, one-stop" efficient business environment has greatly reduced the institutional transaction costs for enterprises to maintain and acquire intangible assets, forming a solid foundation for Zhejiang's three-dimensional intellectual property protection system.
Macro Enlightenment and Future Outlook
Going through the layers of history, the occurrence, development and reshaping of intellectual property rights in Zhejiang is essentially an advanced history of mankind's continuous expansion of the definition of wealth, standardization of competition order, and institutional protection of technological innovation. Looking at this grand picture, there are several core logics hidden throughout:
First, endogenous demands for commercial civilization are the strongest engine to promote the evolution of the intellectual property system. From the Hangzhou Book Carving Shop in the Southern Song Dynasty spontaneously printing "no overwriting" signs, to the strict supervision network built by Yiwu market managers to remove fake labels, to Alibaba's anti-counterfeiting "blocking orders" and technological brains in order to maintain the goodwill of the platform, the fundamental motivation is not simply passive compliance with the law, but based on deep-seated business logic: without clear definition of property rights and strict protection, it is impossible to establish transaction trust, let alone obtain excess profits from innovation. Zhejiang’s active private economy and keen market sense enable it to always sense the urgency of rule reconstruction before institutional changes.
Second, "technology-enabled supervision" is the only solution to solve the dilemma of large-scale and fragmented infringement. In the era of the Internet and digital economy, the marginal cost of infringement approaches zero, and the scissor difference between law enforcement costs and infringement benefits is infinitely magnified. Zhejiang’s practice shows that the traditional “human sea tactics” and “notice to delete” models have completely failed. We must rely on the path of "governing technology with technology" - whether it is Alibaba's AI algorithm interception, semantic sentiment analysis, or the Hangzhou Internet Court's judicial blockchain evidence storage, only by establishing an overwhelming intelligent governance infrastructure can we achieve dimensionality reduction and combat against infringements.
Third, moves from "single-point jurisdiction" to "multiple governance" and builds a comprehensive and three-dimensional property rights protection network. Modern intellectual property infringement has evolved into a cross-platform, cross-border, and hidden black industry chain that cannot be dealt with independently by any single administrative, judicial or commercial force. The plan proposed by Zhejiang is "co-governance of the ecology": at the administrative level, Yiwu has built an encirclement defence line linking towns, functional departments, and exhibitions; at the commercial level, the AACA Alliance has brought the originally competing platforms and global brands into a united front to achieve information exchange and offline joint attacks; at the judicial level, the court has used an online conflict resolution platform to seamlessly connect administrative mediation and industry regulations. This networked and flexible governance structure gives Zhejiang’s intellectual property system extremely strong adaptability and self-repair capabilities.
Standing on the crest of the wave of the era of in-depth development of AIGC, Web3.0 and the digital economy, the boundaries between traditional physical space and digital space are being dissolved at an unprecedented speed, and the object form and infringement paths of intellectual property rights will surely undergo more dramatic fission. However, through the nirvana of the Yiwu market, Alibaba's co-governance experiment, and the judicial breakthrough of the Hangzhou Internet Court, Zhejiang has submitted a very convincing answer to the world: as long as it adheres to the two-wheel drive of innovative development and strict protection, embraces technological change with an inclusive and prudent attitude, and anchors the boundaries of business ethics with the certainty of the rule of law, a healthy, prosperous, high-energy intellectual property ecosystem with global voice will surely continue to lead the starry sea in the future. This is not only the core code for Zhejiang’s continued leadership in regional economy, but also provides profound and irreplaceable Chinese wisdom for the construction of intellectual property rules in the global digital era.
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