EIP Coffee BreakUpdates and Changes
24 August 2021

China Finally Clamps Down on Facial Recognition Technology

Snippets of Court Cases, Provisions, and Key Observations about China’s IP Landscape

Around the end of July 2021, the Supreme People’s Court issued a new Provision concerning the application of law about a super-hot technology, facial recognition. This Provision is a legal explanation from the SPC explaining how the law should be applied or interpreted in a litigation.

This Provision emphasizes that facial information is sensitive biometric information. It is considered a type of personal information having the strongest social attributes, yet at the same time it is very easy to collect. It is fundamentally unique and unchangeable. Once leaked, it will cause extreme damage to individuals’ personal safety and property, and may even threaten public safety. Most importantly, the Provision emphasizes that protection of personal information is of great importance, and provides a lot more clarity on how various types of facial recognition technology would be considered with respect to their impact on an individual’s personal privacy rights.

We welcome such a change: China is finally becoming serious about personal information protection after so many years. This Provision will have a huge impact on the implementation of patents that use facial recognition technologies, and in turn will affect the value of such patents. As for whether it will affect such patent applications from the administrative order level, we will observe and see what happens now that the Provision has formally been implemented (1 Aug 2021).

Source: 最高法发布审理使用人脸识别技术处理个人信息相关民事案件的司法解释

About the Authors

Yolanda Wang is a Principal, Chinese Patent Attorney, and Chinese Patent Litigator at Eagle IP, a Boutique Patent Firm with offices in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and Macau.

This article is for general informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice or a legal opinion on a specific set of facts.

Other Articles

Stealing Trade Secrets: How the Chinese Court Criminally Sentences Employees that Steal Trade Secrets - 2019 China’s Top 50 Representative IP Cases

11 June 2020
The theft of trade secrets has always been a deep concern of foreign companies thinking of doing business in China, whether it be sharing protocols with a manufacturing partner, providing technology details to a potential investor, or sharing results from an R&D collaboration. How can businesses ensure that employees do not steal secrets and share […]

China Announcing More Proposed Amendments to the Examination Guidelines in 2022

17 November 2022
It’s been a year and a half since the new Chinese Patent Law came into effect (1 June 2021). Although various versions of draft Examination Guidelines have been released, thus far no official finalized versions have been confirmed. On October 31, 2022, yet another new list of proposed amendments was published[1], this time consolidating the […]

Why Do Examiners Fail to Recognize the Importance of my “Parameter Features”?

28 May 2025
The Impact of Parameter Features on Inventiveness ”Parameter features” – numerical or mathematical expressions that define the quantity or physical properties of a subject – frequently appear as technical features within a claim. Often described as numerical ranges or measurements, they frequently play a critical role in addressing technical problems. However, in practice, Examiners and […]
CN1982128B Figure

2019 CHINA TOP 10 IP CASE: VALEO V. LUCAS, FUKE, & CHEN

8 June 2020
Every year in the spring The Supreme People’s Court of PRC announces its “Top 10 Intellectual Property (IP) cases” and “50 typical IP cases in Chinese courts” of the year. Although not having precedential weight, these cases serve as a reference and guide people's courts at all levels regarding their intellectual property trials. It’s always […]

Our Past Events

Top crossarrow-right