China's patent authority has issued a landmark decision clarifying how numerical ranges and subsequently added experimental data are evaluated when claiming priority in pharmaceutical patents. The ruling establishes that while new efficacy data can support priority claims for explicitly disclosed ratios, numerical values that merely fall within a disclosed range—but were never specifically mentioned—constitute new subject matter and lose priority protection.

China's National Medical Products Administration has finalized groundbreaking regulatory data protection measures that grant up to 6 years of market exclusivity for innovative drugs, fundamentally...

A 2025 Supreme People's Court ruling establishes that patent examiners cannot arbitrarily label technical features as "common knowledge" without evidence, requiring holistic evaluation of distinguishing features rather than segmented analysis. The decision clarifies that integrated technical solutions must be assessed as a whole, with the burden of proof firmly on those challenging inventive step.

In March 2025, China's National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) released yet another set of draft implementation measures on data protection.