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Enforcement or court caseMediaChinaReported

Guangzhou court holds an AI image service liable for generating Ultraman copies

See how this story connects

Source: Bird & Bird: Liability of AI service providers for copyright infringementAlso reported by Linklaters

The Guangzhou Internet Court ruled on 8 February 2024 that a company running an AI chat and image website infringed the reproduction and adaptation rights in Ultraman when its service produced images substantially similar to the character. The plaintiff, Shanghai Character License Administrative Co., held exclusive rights from Tsuburaya Productions. Citing Articles 4, 12 and 15 of China’s generative AI Interim Measures, the court found the provider lacked a complaint mechanism, risk warnings and output labels, ordered keyword filtering and awarded RMB 10,000 of the RMB 300,000 claimed.

Why it matters

Generative AI services operating in China can be held liable for infringing outputs, and must run complaint channels and filters.

When
8 Feb 2024
ID
WTA-N-2024-0053
Where
China
Who
Guangzhou Internet Court, Tsuburaya Productions
Authority
Guangzhou Internet Court
Target
An AI image service
Action
ruling: infringement; RMB 10,000 (imposed)
Status
decided · Enforcement ledger
Rules involved

Summary by wheresthe.ai, from Bird & Bird and the reporting credited above. We could not open the primary document, so it is marked Reported. Checked against the source on 9 Oct 2026.

Read the original at Bird & Bird

Source copy: download the page as saved on 21 Oct 2026 (PDF). Also held by the Internet Archive.

Next stop on this Storyline: What happened nextChina’s CAC proposes embedded labels for AI-generated content and visible labels where it could mislead

Cite this story

WTA-N-2024-0053: “Guangzhou court holds an AI image service liable for generating Ultraman copies.” wheresthe.ai, 8 Feb 2024. https://wheresthe.ai/d/cn-guangzhou-internet-court-ultraman-ai-ruling-2024-02/ (source: Bird & Bird: Liability of AI service providers for copyright infringement).

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