In the Chinese Patent Law, there are a number of provisions
directed to Compulsory License. Some patentees, especially those in
the pharmaceutical sectors, may worry that the Compulsory License
could be applicable to their patent.
In fact, although the Chinese Patent Law indicated quite a
few scenarios where compulsory license could be applicable,
however, in practice, there is no single successful case so
far where a compulsory license was granted.
Even during the Beijing Olympic Games in
2008 and the COVID-19 pandemic in
2020, no patentee was coerced to sign any compulsory
patent license. Therefore, most IP practitioners believe that the
compulsory license in China is more like “a weapon
for negotiation between parties, by using national interest or
public interest as a legitimate excuse”, while the
possibility of actual being granted with a compulsory license by
the CNIPA is extremely low.
