Patent how to use the double-edged sword

After China's accession to the WTO, many pharmaceutical companies have recognized the role and importance of intellectual property rights. However, in the end how to protect intellectual property and other issues still plague many pharmaceutical companies.

The patent is a double-edged sword

Zhou Heping, a researcher at the Intellectual Property Office of the China Pharmaceutical University, said that patents are a double-edged sword because patents protect our own innovations and, at the same time, restrict our free copying by protecting others.

Zhou Heping believes that whether or not the patent can be used by me will ultimately depend on two factors: the ability to acquire information and innovation. On this basis, the odds of winning will increase if the government’s relevant departments receive policy support. To cultivate "information accessibility and innovation capabilities", we must have the ability and do our best to comprehensively search for patent documents. This is the basis for preventing infringement from innovating. The most important of all the information is the patent literature. All disputes involving patents, regardless of the outcome of the final outcome, are derived from the patent literature, China's pharmaceutical companies are still very lacking in this regard. Therefore, we must be good at using patents and making good use of subordinate patents to make chips. It is important to note that most innovations are based on previous research. The imitation is simply a matter of predecessors, and the use of patent information to innovate is to stand on the shoulders of others. China's pharmaceutical companies have the advantage of research and development of new technologies, and are more likely to innovate in new compounds, new formulations, and new medical uses.

Therefore, we should track foreign pharmaceutical patent information and analyze which new compounds may be new drugs with market prospects. We will pioneer and develop new technologies, new compounds, new formulations, and new medical applications to obtain subordinated patents for this new compound. Strive to use subordinate patents as a bargaining chip for cross-licensing, break through foreign patents, and obtain new drug production and sales rights.

There are three key to the implementation of this strategy: selection of standards, follow-up, and innovation.

Protection of pharmaceutical intellectual property

For Chinese pharmaceutical companies of domestic pharmaceutical companies, there is a difficult paradox between the protection of intellectual property rights and the revival of Chinese pharmaceuticals. For example, Guangzhou Qixing Pharmaceuticals, which owns the old brand Huayi Zaizao Pills, faces such problems. It is reported that it is precisely because the production prescription of Huayi Zaizao Pills has been listed as a confidential prescription by the relevant national authorities since 1985. The sales volume of this drug has remained at the forefront of the nation. In 2004, the drug sales reached 180 million yuan. But now it is faced with an embarrassing problem: Qixing Pharmaceutical is making Huatuo Zaizao Pill for secondary development. The results after the second development plan will be applied for patent protection, but it must be made public under the current domestic rules for the protection of Chinese medicine intellectual property rights. The production of prescriptions can only obtain relevant patents. Enterprises are therefore worried that secrets are leaked, and the cost of maintaining intellectual property rights is also high.

Regarding the practice of the protection of commercial and technological secrets, Zhang Qingkui, director of the Medical Examination Department of the Patent Office of the State Intellectual Property Office, believes that “it is not a permanent solution”. Zhang Qingkui pointed out: "From the perspective of international trends, it has become more and more difficult to protect the use of technology in the form of confidentiality of drugs."

It is gratifying that relevant persons from the State Intellectual Property Office recently stated that the “Regulations on the Protection of Chinese Materia Medica” are about to be revised and there are three main directions for the amendment of the “Regulations”: not to conflict with the Patent Law, not to protect against backwardness, and to establish a reasonable period of protection (not exceeding 10 year). It is hoped that the loss of intellectual property rights in the Chinese medicine industry will gradually be resolved. Enterprises will choose to use judicial forms to protect their intellectual property rights.

Implementing the Strategy of Drug Intellectual Property Protection

According to Lu Aiying, Director of the Chemicals Division of the Drug Registration Department of the State Food and Drug Administration, as of the end of 2004, data concerning patent applications for pharmaceutical inventions published in the “Inventions Patent Bulletin” of the State Intellectual Property Office from 1998 to 2002 showed that China’s pharmaceutical patents The application presents the following features:

First, there are few patent applications for chemical drugs. The second is that there are many applications for Chinese patents, but the quality is poor. Third, patent applications for biopharmaceuticals occupy a place, but the gap between the inventiveness of the invention and the quality of the application is still relatively large compared with foreign countries.

If this passive situation is not reversed, our country’s patent protection will appear to be an embarrassing situation for her. In the meantime, multinational companies will become the biggest beneficiaries of the government’s many intellectual property protection measures. On the one hand, domestic pharmaceutical companies that produce large quantities of generic drugs will be forced into dead ends.

Many experts agreed that the key to the low degree of concern of pharmaceutical companies in China regarding the protection of intellectual property rights in pharmaceuticals is the weak awareness of intellectual property protection. Therefore, research and development of new drugs with independent intellectual property rights is the only way for China to move from a big pharmaceutical country to a strong pharmaceutical country. The implementation of the strategy for the protection of intellectual property rights of pharmaceuticals that suits China's national conditions will play an important role in promoting the protection and incentives for the development of new drugs. The relevant industry experts pointed out that at present, China's innovation strategy in the field of pharmaceuticals is to create a combination of innovations and to strengthen modernization of traditional Chinese medicine.