China withdrew antisuit policy ‘to the extent that it ever existed’ during first WTO dispute with EU, whose monitoring continues

Context: Last year, the European Commission (EC) appealed a decision by a World Trade organization (WTO) dispute resolution panel to reject its complaint over China’s antisuit injunctions in a standard-essential patent (SEP) context (April 23, 2025 ip fray article). The appeal was reported to have succeeded (on 21 July 2025), but important details were unclear and the EC continued to engage with China.

What’s new: We have now seen an official WTO document according to which the current state of affairs is that the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) of China declared the alleged antisuit policy withdrawn, but without acknowledging that it ever existed (more details further below).

Direct impact: It is unclear whether this means that Chinese courts will no longer grant any antisuit injunctions (ASIs) in SEP cases. The SPC’s qualification (“to the extent that it ever existed”) is an implicit denial of a formal policy. The EC claims victory on the one hand, but on the other hand says it will continue to monitor closely the practical effects.

Wider ramifications:

• The question of ASIs is separate from, though not unrelated to, the one addressed by the EC’s second WTO complaint over China (January 20, 2025 ip fray article), which is global rate-setting.
• The EC’s Directorate-General for Trade (DG TRADE) is watching with great concern the interjurisdictional friction between the High Court of Justice for England & Wales (EWHC) and the Unified Patent Court (UPC) (February 3, 2026 ip fray article). And whatever concerns the EC may ever have voiced about China would apply a fortiori¹ to the UK by now.
• ip fray recommends that the parties to SEP disputes symmetrically agree to refrain from such gamesmanship (March 1, 2026 ip fray article).