Judging Data: Critical Discourse and the Rise of Data Intellectual Property Rights in Chinese Courts

Abstract: This paper uses Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to show how Sino-judicial activism shapes Data Intellectual Property Rights (DIPR) in China. We identify two complementary judicial discourses. Local courts (exemplified by the Zhejiang High People's Court, HCZJ) use a judicial continuation discourse that extends intellectual property norms to data disputes. The Supreme People's Court (SPC) deploys a judicial linkage discourse that aligns adjudication with state policy and administrative governance. Their interaction forms a bidirectional conceptual coupling (BCC): an inside-out projection of local reasoning and an outside-in translation of policy into doctrine. The coupling both legitimizes and constrains courts and policymakers, balancing pressure for unified market standards with safeguards against platform monopolization. Through cases such as HCZJ's Taobao v. Meijing and the SPC's Anti-Unfair Competition Interpretation, the study presents DIPR as a testbed for doctrinal innovation and institutional coordination in China's evolving digital governance.