The development of China’s approach to patents, especially those in the pharmaceutical and biotech space, has been fascinating to watch. Those of us who have practiced in the area for a long time have been frustrated by the Chinese patent office’s overly strict rules regarding patentability (e.g., high data support standard and refusal to consider post-filing data), while at the same time being more lax on enforcement. Things have changed a lot in the past five years as China has revamped its patent system in numerous ways. The creation of an entirely new IP court system, the introduction of a new patent law (only the 4th revision in its 40+…
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China Top 10 Cases of 2020 – CNIPA Upholds Second Medical Use Patent from University of Bordeaux
The development of China’s approach to patents, especially those in the pharmaceutical and biotech space, has been fascinating to watch. Those of us who have practiced in the area for a long time have been frustrated by the Chinese patent office’s overly strict rules regarding patentability (e.g., high data support standard and refusal to consider post-filing data), while at the same time being more lax on enforcement. Things have changed a lot in the past five years as China has revamped its patent system in numerous ways. The creation of an entirely new IP court system, the introduction of a new patent law (only the 4th revision in its 40+…
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Narrow Claim Scope of a Chinese Utility Model Patent Fuels Design-Arounds by Failing to Curb Competing Products:
Learning from a 2019 China’s Top 50 Representative IP Case The number of patent applications in China is now the highest in the world, with more than half the applications filed as utility model applications (UMs). For example, there were more than 2 million UMs filed in 2018 alone (for the difference between a utility model and an invention patent in China, see here). However, less than 1% are filed by foreigners[1]. This reflects the lack of appreciation on the part of many foreign companies of what protection UMs can confer, and there is a general misunderstanding that UMs are by definition poor in quality. This misconception is fueled by…
