How the Supreme People’s Court Established a New Benchmark for Unexpected Technical Effects in a Landmark Diabetic Nephropathy Case Proving inventive step for pharmaceutical compounds, especially a second medical use, remains one of the most challenging aspects of patent prosecution in China. When the prior art discloses a compound’s general therapeutic properties, how can an applicant demonstrate that a specific new use achieves “unexpected technical effects”? The Supreme People’s Court’s (SPC) recent decision in the “Ligustrazine Nitrone Derivative” case offers an answer: If the therapeutic effect of an invention patent application’s technical solution for a certain disease is comparable to that of the world’s first drug approved for treating that disease…