China
Patent Inventiveness in China: Why “Common Knowledge” Must Be Proven, Not Assumed
2026年8月14日A Case Study of the "Electronic Blackboard" Case, (2025) SPC Zhi Xing Zhong No. 286 I. Introduction In assessing inventive step for invention patents, determining whether a technical solution would have been “readily conceivable” to a person skilled in the art has long been one of the most disputed and uncertain aspects of the analysis. […]
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Connecting the Dots: China’s Evolving Standard for Numerical Sub-Range Amendments
2026年7月22日Managing global pharmaceutical or chemical portfolios requires navigating China’s notoriously rigid standards on the "same subject matter" requirement for priority and claim amendments. A recent invalidation decision (No. 588094) issued by the China National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA) concerning a pharmaceutical patent provides clarity on how numerical ranges and later added experimental data are evaluated […]
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No More Hindsight Bias: China’s Supreme People's Court Reins in Patent Inventiveness Assessments
2026年6月25日For foreign applicants navigating patent litigation or invalidation in China, a common frustration is hindsight bias. Too often, CNIPA or lower courts strip down a patent into isolated technical features, find those features across disparate prior art references, and declare the invention to be "obvious". To counter such hindsight reasoning, the core criterion has always […]
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IP Update: China’s Supreme People’s Court Issues First Public Decision Defining China’s Inventorship Standard
2026年6月1日In theory China's inventorship standard is similar to others around the world. An inventor is anyone who "makes creative contributions to the substantive features" of an invention. But what does this mean, and how does one apply this standard? Up to this point, this issue hasn't really been litigated much in China (at least according […]
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Breaking: China Released Drug Trial Data Protection Implementation Measures
2026年5月22日On May 15, 2026, China’s National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) officially announced the final Measures for the Implementation of Drug Trial Data Protection (“Measures”), effective May 15, 2026. These Measures provide important details supporting the recently announced Implementing Regulations of the Drug Administration Law (“Regulations” – also effective May 15, 2026), which formally introduced a […]
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A Stratification Too Far? How the CNIPA Draws the Line on Patient Subgroups in a Recent Precision Medicine Invalidation Case
2026年2月27日Precision medicine is rapidly transforming the global healthcare landscape, providing more effective therapies and better patient outcomes through targeted solutions. As therapeutics move away from the traditional “one-size-fits-all” model, unique challenges are presented in the patent examination process. The 2024 Top 10 Patent Re-examination and Invalidation case highlighted below provides further insight into how the […]
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What Microsoft’s Recent Patent Invalidation Case in China Teaches Us About User Interface Patents
2026年1月29日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. […]
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Beijing Supreme People’s Court Upholds Novo Nordisk Semaglutide Patent in China based on Post-Filing Data
2026年1月23日On December 31, 2025, The Supreme People's Court upheld the Beijing IP Court's decision, meaning that the semaglutide patent remains valid and will expire on March 20, 2026. Novo Nordisk announced this positive news via a press release on the day the case was decided. The Chinese Ministry of Commerce has also confirmed this decision […]
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Thin Disclosure but "Bulletproof" Protection: How a Salt Form Patent was Upheld in China Despite Minimal Data
2026年1月8日In China, innovative drug companies typically rely on their initial composition of matter patents to block out competitors. Other “follow-on” IP, such as those directed towards formulations, polymorphs, and salt forms, are often regarded as less likely to survive invalidation challenges, especially in China where the standard of “person skilled in the art” is so […]
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The Secret Prior Art Trap: A Case Study on Conflicting Applications in China
2025年11月13日In patent prosecution, the concept of a "conflicting application" or “secret prior art” plays a critical role in determining the patentability of an invention. This article explores the framework for assessing conflicting applications under Chinese patent law, with a comparative perspective on the approaches adopted in the United States. Case Background: The Image Encoding Dispute […]
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