The Supreme People's Court (SPC) released nine typical civil cases on personality rights protection on April 11, in a bid to guide courts across the nation on how to correctly apply the provisions concerning personality rights in the Civil Code, which took effect on Jan 1, 2021.

The nine cases, which have had great social impact and demonstrative significance, were all concluded with verdicts in force since the promulgation of the Civil Code. Respectively, they involved protection of a minor's right to change name, protection of a woman's right to inscribe her name on her foster parents' tombstone, an online bidding ranking case involving infringement of identity right, an intelligent algorithm software infringing personality rights, a dispute on image right and name right of a celebrity, a reputation right infringement case caused by financial institutions' neglect of duties in verifying and correcting a debtor's credit registries, a reputation right infringement case caused by negative reviews from a property owner to a property company, a case of a visual doorbell infringing on a neighbor's privacy right, and a civil public interest litigation case related to illegal trading of personal information.

In 2021, courts across the nation accepted 192,675 cases concerning personality rights in the first instance, a year-on-year increase of 19.2 percent. Among those, cases concerning spiritual personality rights such as reputation rights, image rights and name rights, all saw a year-on-year growth in numbers.