Court Cases

Polymorph Patents in China: What is the Standard for Inventiveness for New Crystal Forms?

14 July 2020

This case is focused on polymorphs, namely what are the standards for novelty and inventiveness when it comes to new crystal forms of a known drug? A recent Supreme People’s Court decision in China is illustrative of the way Chinese courts are thinking about polymorph patents in China. Grünenthal is a German pharmaceutical company and […]

Stealing Trade Secrets: How the Chinese Court Criminally Sentences Employees that Steal Trade Secrets - 2019 China’s Top 50 Representative IP Cases

11 June 2020

The theft of trade secrets has always been a deep concern of foreign companies thinking of doing business in China, whether it be sharing protocols with a manufacturing partner, providing technology details to a potential investor, or sharing results from an R&D collaboration. How can businesses ensure that employees do not steal secrets and share […]

2019 CHINA TOP 10 IP CASE: VALEO V. LUCAS, FUKE, & CHEN

8 June 2020

Every year in the spring The Supreme People’s Court of PRC announces its “Top 10 Intellectual Property (IP) cases” and “50 typical IP cases in Chinese courts” of the year. Although not having precedential weight, these cases serve as a reference and guide people's courts at all levels regarding their intellectual property trials. It’s always […]

The Latest on Post-Filing Data in China’s Patent Law

29 April 2020

Post-filing data can sometimes be the crucial difference between a patent allowance and a final rejection. The reasons are endless why important data may not have been included in the original patent application as filed. Time and budget may have been insufficient to generate data over the full scope of the claims at the time […]

Markush claims in China - what can be arbitrarily deleted during invalidation?

4 December 2018

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 […]

No % homology? How to craft allowable claim scope around sequences to comply with China’s strict written description requirements

23 November 2018

Since 2010, the 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 […]

Can Post Filing Data Overcome Inventive Step in China?

19 November 2018

Is it Sufficient to Claim an Antibody only by Describing its Antigen?

12 November 2018

Things may be brewing with respect to antibody inventions. Just how much description is sufficient? After losing in the Federal Circuit, Amgen has decided to ask the US Supreme Court to weigh in on a standard that could vastly influence the pharmaceutical and biotech industry. The story relates to Repatha™, an LDL-lowering drug from Amgen […]

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