On September 23, 2026, the Jiang’an District People’s Court in Wuhan, China announced the first case in Hubei Province involving copyright infringement of an AI-assisted short drama, holding that AI-generated content meeting the requirements of a “work” is copyrightable, consistent with holdings from several other lower Chinese courts. In determining damages, the court included the computing costs associated with token consumption, along with commercial tool licensing costs, as factors in the calculation, alongside other traditional damages factors such as the work’s duration, scope of dissemination, timing of release, and duration of infringement. The court ultimately awarded the plaintiff RMB 20,000 in damages and reasonable expenses.

                                                                                                                         Source.Wuhan Jiang'an District Court，people.cn-Hubei Channel