How the Supreme People's Court Established a New Benchmark for Unexpected Technical Effects in a Landmark Diabetic Nephropathy Case
Proving inventive step for pharmaceutical compounds, especially a second medical use, remains one of the most challenging aspects of patent prosecution in China. When the prior art discloses a compound's general therapeutic properties, how can an applicant demonstrate that a specific new use achieves "unexpected technical effects"?
The Supreme People's Court's (SPC) recent decision in the "Ligustrazine Nitrone Derivative" case offers an answer: If the therapeutic effect of an invention patent application's technical solution for a certain disease is comparable to that of the world's first drug approved for treating that disease after the filing date, such therapeutic effect may serve as an important factor in determining whether the invention patent application has achieved unexpected technical effects.
