Centuries-old Song brocade is experiencing a revival through coordinated safeguarding efforts. Suzhou's Gusu District is capitalizing on its status as a grassroots legislative contact point to pioneer new pathways for protecting the intellectual property of intangible cultural heritage. At a "Suzhou Procuratorial Guardian" case storytelling event held by the Jiangsu Provincial Procuratorate, prosecutors recounted the story of how public interest litigation protected Suzhou Song brocade, often hailed as the "living fossil of silk." Prosecutors from the Gusu District Procuratorate in Suzhou also met with leaders of a time-honored Chinese brand to assess the current state of heritage protection.
In the post-autumn Gusu City, lush green branches lean against white walls and dark tiles. Inside the Qian Xiaoping Song Brocade Studio, soft lighting casts a glow over magnificent fabrics, featuring patterns like treasure flowers and running deer, goldfish and waterweed. New Chinese-style vests and cheongsams shimmer with vibrant colors. Amidst ancient alleys, small bridges, and flowing water, tourists dressed in new Chinese-style attire wander, creating a picturesque scene. Prosecutors from the Gusu District Procuratorate returned to the Qian Xiaoping Song Brocade Studio for a follow-up visit.
"We feel much more at ease with our designs now. Some companies that previously thrived on counterfeiting have even started transitioning to building their own brands," said Wu Fang, head of the Qian Xiaoping Song Brocade Studio, on August 11, as she showcased exquisite original Song brocade products at the "Suzhou Procuratorial Guardian" case storytelling event hosted by the Jiangsu Provincial Procuratorate. She spoke to prosecutors about the changing market ecology for silk intangible cultural heritage with a beaming smile and deep emotion. Just two years ago, her company's products were frequently subjected to malicious counterfeiting and "same-style" plagiarism, leaving them trapped in a predicament of "difficult rights protection and survival."
To address these pain points in heritage protection, the Gusu District Procuratorate broke through with individual cases. Leveraging its advantage as a grassroots legislative contact point in Suzhou, it pushed for local legislation to improve IP protection for intangible cultural heritage. Through a mechanism for the bidirectional conversion of procuratorial suggestions and deputy suggestions, it promoted collaboration between judicial and administrative bodies, building a "diversified co-governance" framework for heritage protection. By harnessing the power of digital intelligence and establishing a big-data legal supervision model, it elevated heritage protection from "case-by-case rights defense" to "systematic safeguarding," allowing this millennium-old silk weaving technique to weave an even more splendid "new tapestry" in the modern era.
Case Breakthrough Helps Brocade Studio Defend IP
Suzhou Song brocade, renowned as the "living fossil of silk," is celebrated as the "crown of Chinese brocade." In the 1990s, the Song brocade weaving technique was on the verge of being lost. Fortunately, heritage inheritors like Qian Xiaoping managed to revive the traditional craft, preserving it for posterity. In recent years, the Qian Xiaoping Song Brocade Studio has become a benchmark in Suzhou's Song brocade industry, thanks to popular patterns like the treasure flower and running deer brocade and the butterfly orchid brocade. However, rampant online infringement, including counterfeiting, piracy, and plagiarism, severely impacted the inheritance and development of this intangible cultural heritage, leaving the studio's design team at a loss.
In April 2024, Wu Fang, the head of the Qian Xiaoping Song Brocade Studio, reported to the Gusu District Procuratorate that since 2022, some merchants had been using names like "Qian Xiaoping same style" or "Grandma Qian's OEM factory" in live-stream sales to sell counterfeit products, infringing on their intellectual property. Prosecutors from the Gusu District Procuratorate visited the studio to gain a deeper understanding of the protection status of its trademark rights, copyrights, and other IP assets.
Upon receiving the lead, Ji Yahui, head of the Public Interest Litigation Department at the Gusu District Procuratorate, immediately went to investigate with colleagues. "As soon as a new pattern hits the market, counterfeit goods flood the live-streaming rooms, passing off shoddy, cut-corner products as genuine. This not only tarnishes the studio's reputation but also hurts consumers!" Wu Fang's tone was filled with anger and helplessness when describing the infringement chaos. The company had tried to defend its rights on its own, but "the infringement in live-streaming is too covert. The pace of sales is so fast that collecting evidence feels like tailing someone," Wu Fang admitted. With only about a dozen designers at the studio, they felt "powerless" against the dispersed infringers, the difficulty of evidence collection, and the high professional threshold. This prompted her to turn to the Gusu District Procuratorate, which had previously given a lecture on IP protection at the Suzhou Time-Honored Brand Association.
After investigation, Ji Yahui and his team concluded that as intangible cultural heritage, the protection and inheritance of Song brocade is not just the responsibility of a single company but concerns the public interest, and the procuratorial organ has a duty to protect it. At the end of April 2024, the procuratorate formed a special case team for Song brocade heritage protection. On May 31 of the same year, it formally accepted the case to support the Qian Xiaoping Song Brocade Studio in filing a lawsuit and began helping the company build a comprehensive evidence system.
"Pay attention to the pattern details—the host mentioned 'Grandma Qian's OEM factory' again. Take a screenshot and save the evidence!" In June 2024, Ji Yahui and three other prosecutors spent days "staking out" more than ten live-streaming rooms suspected of infringement, taking screenshots of suspected infringing content involving keywords like "Grandma Qian's OEM factory" and "Qian Xiaoping." They then worked with the studio's designers to carefully identify which cases involved false advertising or pirated copies. Subsequently, they traced the company names through the live-streaming platforms and then searched for corporate information on e-commerce platforms. To verify the production situation of the infringing products, the prosecutors, along with the studio's designers and attorneys, made "undercover visits" to company production workshops and toured major silk sales markets. They discovered that a textile company in Suzhou had long been copying the studio's designs, openly claiming to be "Qian Xiaoping's OEM factory" in live streams, and some products even bore the "Qian Xiaoping Song Brocade Studio" trademark without authorization—clear evidence of infringement.
At the end of June 2024, the Gusu District Procuratorate issued an administrative public interest litigation procuratorial suggestion, urging market regulatory authorities to strengthen oversight of unfair competition in the Song brocade market and standardize market order. The market regulatory authorities quickly launched a special inspection of live-stream sales in the Song brocade industry, compelling a company to remove all counterfeit Song brocade products. In July of the same year, the Gusu District Procuratorate supported the Qian Xiaoping Song Brocade Studio in filing a civil lawsuit against the textile company. On May 30, 2025, the court ruled in the first instance that the defendant must cease infringement, destroy the 30-plus infringing product lines, issue a public apology in authoritative media, and pay 100,000 yuan in damages. The judgment was fully enforced. With this, the Gusu District Procuratorate successfully helped the brocade studio defend its IP through the combined approach of "support for prosecution plus procuratorial suggestions."
"What had been unresolved for years, the procuratorate helped us accomplish. It's not just about the money; it gives us hope for the inheritance of Song brocade and strengthens our confidence in protecting intellectual property." Qian Xiaoping specifically asked Wu Fang to convey her gratitude to the Gusu District Procuratorate on her behalf.
Bidirectional Linkage Targets Pain Points to Build a Legal Fortress
The conclusion of one case is not the end. During their investigation, prosecutors found that beyond the Qian Xiaoping Song Brocade Studio, several other well-known Song brocade companies had also been victims of infringement. To properly write the "second half of the article" on Song brocade heritage protection, it was necessary to establish a long-term mechanism for normalized, law-based protection.
When the Gusu District Procuratorate was handling the aforementioned case, the "Suzhou Intellectual Property Protection and Promotion Regulations" (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations") were open for public comment. Between April and July 2024, the procuratorate reported on the case progress to the district people's congress standing committee three times. Leveraging its role as a legislative "direct train," it proposed, based on case practice, that "intellectual property protection should focus on local characteristics, incorporating silk-type intangible cultural heritage represented by Song brocade weaving techniques into the scope of legislative protection." This suggestion was submitted by the Gusu District People's Congress Standing Committee to the Suzhou Municipal People's Congress Standing Committee and was adopted after thorough deliberation. On August 28, 2024, the Regulations were passed at the 16th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 17th Suzhou Municipal People's Congress. On January 1, 2025, following approval by the 11th meeting of the Standing Committee of the 14th Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress, the Regulations officially took effect.
Article 13 of the Regulations clearly states that the people's procuratorate shall promote comprehensive performance of IP duties and explore civil and administrative public interest litigation related to intellectual property. Article 19 clarifies that departments responsible for IP management shall, in conjunction with commerce, health, and other departments, strengthen IP protection for intangible cultural heritage such as Song brocade weaving techniques, Biluochun tea-making techniques, Suzhou Pingtan, Su embroidery, Taohuawu woodblock New Year prints, as well as the Wu Gate medical school and time-honored brands. "The procuratorial organ's proactive efforts in elevating issues discovered in individual cases to legislative improvement suggestions represent a valuable exploration in Song brocade heritage protection, expanding the protection pathways and greatly benefiting the inheritance and development of Song brocade," said Li Yuqiang, a deputy to the Gusu District People's Congress, deputy director of the Legal Work Committee of the District People's Congress Standing Committee, and deputy director of the Legal Affairs Division of the District Housing and Construction Committee.
The vitality of the law lies in its implementation. The Gusu District Procuratorate strengthened communication, consolidated the joint efforts of people's congress deputies, and continuously promoted the new law's implementation and effectiveness. On November 5, 2024, relying on the mechanism for the bidirectional conversion of deputy suggestions and procuratorial suggestions, it compiled a special report on the handling of Song brocade live-stream infringement cases and submitted it to the Gusu District People's Congress Standing Committee. Li Yuqiang visited Song brocade companies like the Qian Xiaoping Studio, researched their experiences with online infringement, listened to and summarized opinions from heritage inheritors and company leaders, and submitted a "Suggestion on Strengthening the Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage Song Brocade" at the 2025 district "Two Sessions." The suggestion explicitly called for strengthening coordination between judicial and administrative organs, intensifying efforts to combat infringement and counterfeiting of Song brocade products on e-commerce platforms, and promoting the healthy development of the Song brocade craft and industry.
The Gusu District People's Congress Standing Committee assigned the deputy suggestion to the district's market regulatory authorities. They quickly joined forces with the Gusu District Procuratorate to carry out the filing and registration of Song brocade enterprises on e-commerce platforms. This drove 19 enterprises led by inheritors of provincial-level or above intangible cultural heritage to achieve registration-based protection on mainstream e-commerce platforms like Xiaohongshu and Meituan, clarifying corporate subject information and product traceability to prevent infringement at the platform level. In February this year, Shen Liping, a deputy to the Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress and deputy manager of the Women's Wear Department at Suzhou People's Mall, learned about the Song brocade protection case through the Gusu District People's Congress Standing Committee and submitted a "Suggestion on Strengthening the Online IP Protection of Suzhou Song Brocade Intangible Cultural Heritage" to the Fifth Session of the 14th Jiangsu Provincial People's Congress. Addressing the current problems in online IP protection for Suzhou Song brocade, Shen Liping put forward four suggestions: strengthen cross-regional systematic enforcement to build a mutually reinforcing comprehensive protection framework; establish a one-stop protection platform to smooth channels for enterprise rights defense; guide enterprises toward proactive self-protection and improve their diversified IP layout; and intensify digital empowerment to build a "human defense plus technical defense" monitoring network. The suggestion is being jointly handled by units including the Jiangsu Provincial Propaganda Department, the Provincial Market Supervision Administration, and the Provincial Procuratorate, and is currently in progress.
Diversified Co-Governance Builds a Comprehensive Heritage Protection System
"With the Regulations in place, the procuratorial organ now has a clear basis for protecting silk-type intangible cultural heritage. We have further strengthened comprehensive performance of duties, and relying on the bidirectional linkage mechanism, we have gradually broken through the limitations of single-dimensional judicial protection to build a diversified, collaborative co-governance framework of 'procuratorial supervision + administrative regulation + industry governance + social participation,'" Ji Yahui said.
Since the implementation of the Regulations, with strong support from the Gusu District People's Congress Standing Committee, the Gusu District Procuratorate has strengthened cross-departmental collaboration. Together with the district's market regulatory and cultural tourism departments, it established the province's first "Intangible Cultural Heritage Protection Service Station" within the Gusu District Procuratorate. This station has set up mechanisms for lead transfer and joint law enforcement, connects with heritage inheritors, provides professional legal assistance, and has helped formulate group standards for geographical indication products for silk-type heritage like "Su embroidery" and "Suzhou silk." It also assists enterprises in gradually improving their autonomous IP management and rights defense capabilities. These units also partnered with Suzhou's "Time-Honored Brand" Association to form a cross-industry "Intellectual Property Protection Action Team," promoting the establishment of the "Suzhou Song Brocade Industry Alliance." They issued a "Proposal for the Protection of Suzhou Silk Intangible Cultural Heritage" to the public and heritage inheritors, and guided 15 silk-type heritage enterprises, including Suzhou Song brocade, Wu Luo, and Zhang satin, to connect with the national-level fast-track rights protection center for textiles and apparel, enabling rapid appearance patent applications and swift infringement mediation and resolution.
"Now, as soon as our patterns are finalized, we upload them to the app for timestamped evidence storage. If we spot an infringing pattern, we immediately take photos and save the evidence," Wu Fang said, praising the now-commonly used "Su Cun Zheng" (Suzhou Evidence Storage) app. The app, developed by the Suzhou Sucheng Notary Office, is mainly used by silk-type heritage enterprises to preserve design materials such as pattern sketches and plate designs, helping inheritors fix in real-time the creative process and ownership evidence. In October 2025, at the 2025 Suzhou World Cultural Creativity Conference and the 14th Suzhou Cultural Creative Design Industry Trade Fair, five units—including the Gusu District Procuratorate, Suzhou Silk Museum, Gusu District Market Supervision Administration, and Suzhou Sucheng Notary Office—jointly promoted the "Su Cun Zheng" app and signed the "Implementation Opinions on Strengthening Collaboration for the Protection of Silk-Type Intangible Cultural Heritage," aiming to build a modern protection system of "rule of law + administration + notarization + digitalization" for silk-type heritage. To date, more than 130 notarizations related to silk-type heritage have been handled, effectively assisting inheritors in rights defense.
While improving local cross-departmental protection, cross-regional collaboration is also being further strengthened. Relying on the Suzhou Yangtze River Delta C9 Alliance mechanism, the Gusu District Procuratorate has driven 19 enterprises to be included in a cross-regional IP protection system, upgrading from "territorial protection" to "regional linkage." Under the guidance of the Suzhou Municipal Procuratorate, the Gusu District Procuratorate, together with the Wuzhong District and Huqiu District Procuratorates, jointly investigated issues harming the rights of heritage inheritors, effectively addressing the challenge of some infringing merchants being distributed across regions and difficult to fully regulate. A total of 7 public interest litigation cases involving infringement of intangible cultural heritage IP, such as Song brocade, Wu Luo, and Su embroidery, were filed.
If collaborative co-governance broadens the scope of protection, then technological empowerment enhances its precision. Facing the characteristics of online IP infringement—strong concealment and difficulty in detection—the Gusu District Procuratorate independently developed a "Big Data Legal Supervision Model for Comprehensive Protection of Intangible Cultural Heritage." Targeting unfair competition practices such as counterfeiting and misusing heritage names and logos to create confusion, harming heritage protection and inheritance, the model conducts intelligent screening and technical analysis of high-frequency complaints and hot topics in e-commerce and live-streaming platforms. It performs data collision on new types of infringement, such as selling counterfeit products under the guise of "intangible cultural heritage masters." The model accurately identified more than 20 law-breaking enterprises within the jurisdiction and supervised the removal of over 30 infringing products. For 10 cross-regional leads, the procuratorate promptly transferred them to relevant local authorities for coordinated investigation. In September 2025, the model was launched on the national digital procuratorial application platform. To date, it has screened and identified over 3,000 supervision leads, assisting 435 procuratorates nationwide in successfully filing more than 470 cases, achieving a scale effect in heritage protection. In November 2025, the model received an honorary nomination in the national procuratorial organs' big data legal supervision model application business competition.
"The Gusu District Procuratorate has innovatively adopted a comprehensive duty performance approach of 'public interest litigation + support for prosecution,' building a system of 'procuratorial supervision + people's congress supervision + administrative regulation.' This achieves systematic protection of the intangible cultural heritage of Song brocade and helps it radiate vibrant vitality in the new era," said Zhang Jin, a deputy to the National People's Congress and general manager and chief engineer of Zhongheng Design Group Co., Ltd., in April this year after hearing a report from Chen Xiaojun, chief prosecutor of the Gusu District Procuratorate, offering high praise for the efforts.