The National Data Administration (NDA) has issued the Guidelines for Data Property Rights Registration (Trial), establishing a national framework for the registration and management of data property rights and advancing China’s efforts to develop a unified data market.

The Guidelines apply to the registration of data resources, data products and services, and identify data property rights as including data holding rights, data use rights and data operation rights. They also establish requirements for registration institutions and set out procedures for application, review, public disclosure, objection handling and issuance of registration certificates.

The new framework represents an important step in the development of China’s data-rights architecture, seeking to provide greater legal and operational certainty for the circulation and commercial use of data while maintaining safeguards for data security and the legitimate rights and interests of relevant parties.