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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Markush claims in China – what can be arbitrarily deleted during invalidation?
Since 2010, the China Patent Re-examination Board (PRB) has published the top 10 patent invalidation cases of the year in April of each year. The selection criteria are high social concern, significant impact on the related industry, or involve difficult legal issues and important examination criteria. Below is one of the top 10 cases that discusses post filing data in China patents. This case (Beijing Winsunny Harmony Science & Technology Co., Ltd. v. Daiichi Sankyo Co., Ltd) describes an invalidation request of Daiichi Sankyo’s Chinese invention patent 97126347.7 related to processes of preparing pharmaceutical compositions for treating or preventing hypertension. The patent covered the marketed hypertension drug Olmesartan medoxomil. During…
