The patentee, Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.,Ltd. (hereinafter “Takeda”), owns a invention patent No. ZL96111063.5 titled as “Pharmaceutical Composition for Use in Treatment of Diabetes” (hereinafter “the patent concerned”). Claim 1 was “pharmaceutical composition useful for prophylaxis or treatment of diabetes, diabetic complications, glucose or lipid metabolism disorders, which comprises an insulin sensitivity enhancer selected from pioglitazone or a pharmacologically acceptable salt thereof, and Sulfonylurea as insulin sensitivity enhancers.”

Experimental data is vital to the patentability requirements of inventiveness, support, and enablement for chemical/medical application. During the substantive examination, the applicant may intend to supplement experimental data to support inventiveness after filing, which is called “post-filing experimental data”. It is controversial whether post-filing experimental data shall be admitted. This article discusses admission of post-filing experimental data, as well as the binding effect of examination result in other countries based on analysis on an actual case.

This judgment illustrated that the date when a patent right is declared invalid shall be the decision date of the patent invalidation proceeding.

This case relates to invention patent No. ZL 96107072.2 of the patentee, Qianping AO. After issuance of the patent, the patentee issued a license to Shenzhen DNS Industries Co., Ltd. (“DNS Industries” hereinafter), agreeing that DNS Industries can further permit a third party to exploit the patent in a manner of commissioned processing such as OEM or ODM.

Zhejiang Huali Communication Group Co., Ltd. (hereafter referred to as “Huali Communication”) is the sole and exclusive licensee of a licensing contract for exploitation (in which the patentee does not retain any right to exploit its technology) of an invention patent titled “CDMA/GSM dual-mode mobile communication method and communication device thereof” with Patent No. ZL02101734.4 (hereafter referred to as “the involved patent”).

Examination Decision No. 19631, which is related to the validity of patent No. ZL95190642.9, titled “Shaving Apparatus”, is the first decision that involves the petitioner withdrew the invalidation request and the examination of the request for invalidation was not terminated. This is the PRB’s first application of the principle of conducting examinations ex officio under Rule 72.2.

The principle of prior art defense established in patent infringement litigation means that the scope of protection of a patent right shall not encompass the prior art. The rationale of the principle is that the public have the right to freely practice the prior art known to the public, and no one is entitled to claim the prior art into the scope of an exclusive patent right, or else the public interest will be damaged. In addition to examining the legal validity of the patent right in the patent invalidation procedure, examining an accused infringer’s assertion of the prior art defense in the patent infringement litigation is advantageous for timely resolving disputes, reducing litigation exhaustion of the parties, and realizing unification of equity and efficiency. The prior art defense and its difference from determination of novelty judgment or inventiveness in the patent invalidation procedure are articulated in this case, which facilitate the parties’ understanding the standards of application of the prior art defense by the courts in China.

As prescribed in the Chinese Trademark Law, application for registration of a trademark shall not create any prejudice to another person’s prior right, which includes prior copyright. Prior copyright is considered as an important aspect in trademark disputes with various advantages to claim against the disputed trademark, such as automatic protection without registration, cross-jurisdiction protection and cross-Class protection.

A technical solution refers to a collection of technical means that are adopted to solve a technical problem and utilize the laws of nature. Generally, a technical means is embodied by one or more technical features. When an invention-creation, especially inventiveness of a claim, is evaluated, usually a standard three-step method is adopted. However, there is a deviation that an invention-creation is NOT evaluated as an organic whole and a claim is divided as several fragmented parts and the respective parts are evaluated separately. However, such kind of evaluation is inappropriate. In this case, the Supreme People’s Court emphasized that an invention-creation should be evaluated as a whole.

The usage environment feature refers to a technical feature for describing the environment or conditions under which an invention is applied. The usage environment feature included in a claim is a part of the essential technical features of the claim, contributes to define the protection scope of the claim, and thus shall be considered when determining the protection scope of the claim.