In Part I of this NRF blog series, posted here, we reported on three AI-related cases published in 2025 by the Beijing Internet Court as being ‘model’ (precedent-illustrating) AI cases. In this article, we continue with the remaining three cases.
Cheng v. Sun – AI misuse
The plaintiff and the defendant were both members of a chat group. The defendant had used AI to transform the plaintiff’s profile portrait photo into an anime-style image with revealing clothing and posted it on the chat group. The court found that chat group members could identify the plaintiff as the subject of the AI-created image, and as a result had made vulgar comments about the plaintiff. The court held that the defendant had infringed upon the plaintiff’s image and reputation rights.
Technology companies A & B v. Sun – virtual human figures
The plaintiffs had jointly created virtual human figures A and B, which were popular figures on various platforms. The defendant sold, without authorization, models of virtual human figures A and B on a toy model website. The court held that the full-body image of virtual human figure A and the head image of virtual human figure B were freshly created by the production teams of the plaintiffs and not derived from any real person. The design of these figures reflected the production teams’ unique aesthetic choices and judgments regarding lines, colors, and specific style design and met the originality requirements for artistic works. The infringing toy models from the defendant were identical or substantially similar to the works in question, as regards facial features, hairstyle, hair accessories, clothing design, and overall style, and therefore constituted infringements of the two plaintiffs’ copyright and in respect of their right to disseminate via an information network.
He v. an AI technology company – AI virtual celebrity
The defendant, an AI-technology company, developed and operated a mobile bookkeeping software where users could create “AI companions” as characters. The plaintiff was a public figure who could be and was set up as a companion character by numerous users of the software. The defendant also recommended the virtual plaintiff companion to users and provided a “training” algorithm mechanism, allowing users to create an experience of “real-life” interaction with the virtual plaintiff companion.
The court noted that under the defendant’s software functions and algorithm design, users could and did create virtual characters using the plaintiff’s name and image, hence forming a virtual version of the plaintiff. The court held that such replication of the plaintiff’s overall personality, including the plaintiff’s image and name, constituted an infringement of the plaintiff’s name and image rights. Further, the ability for users to have “real-life” interactions with the virtual character, which was highly associated with the real natural person, also infringed upon the plaintiff’s general personality rights.
The number of AI-related disputes handled by the Beijing Internet Court is increasing every year. The model cases chosen to be published by the court represent some of the most litigated areas and should provide useful guidance to Chinese AI developers, platform operators and users, as well as promoting responsible and lawful future use of AI technology.