Each year the CNIPA publishes its Top Ten Patent Re-examination and Invalidation Cases for the previous year. These cases are meant to be guiding cases, showcasing exemplary real-world decisions that clarify certain aspects of the law. Today we’ll be sharing about one of the Top 10 Invalidation Cases in 2024 involving Microsoft (China) Co., Ltd. petitioning to invalidate a patent by Newman Infinite Inc. in the field of human-computer interaction (HCI). Case summary The patent claimed methods and devices for manipulating a touch screen user interface that could help differentiate between various touch targets, preventing undesired interactions with non-target elements. The patentee used a self-defined term “clutch user interface element”,…
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- China, China Patent Office, CNIPA, data, Invalidation, Patent, Patent Law, Patent Re-examination Board, Patentability, Pharma, Support Requirements
How to Protect a Crystal Form (Polymorph) Patent in China
Crystalline forms are critical to pharmaceutical patents, offering extended protection for improved stability, bioavailability, or manufacturability. However, securing such patents in China has grown increasingly difficult due to the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA)’s strict patentability criteria. Unlike the U.S. or Europe, where structural novelty or problem-solving utility may suffice, China demands quantifiable evidence of superiority over prior art forms and rejects patents based on routine screening alone. Recent decisions, like the invalidation of fruquintinib Crystal Form I, highlight common pitfalls: insufficient comparative data, incremental technical effects, and failures to preempt obviousness challenges. With China’s pharmaceutical market surging and secondary patents under heightened scrutiny, companies must strategically align their IP strategies…
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RNAi Patent Success in China: Overcoming “Comprising” Claim Challenges
An Update on Sufficiency and Inventiveness of RNAi Patents in China RNAi is a fast-developing technology that has gained traction in the pharmaceutical industry as a promising therapeutic agent. It is important to follow closely RNAi patent proceedings to learn how different examination boards and courts understand and handle these new technologies. The first-ever invalidation decision in China for an RNAi patent1 was rendered in 2022 by the Patent Re-examination Board (the “Board”). We previously wrote about this case, which discussed the standards for post-filing data, sufficiency, and inventive step, particularly for RNAi inventions. Since then, two newer cases involving RNAi have also been upheld by the Board after facing similar…
