One of the most controversial issues relating to Standard-Essential Patent (“SEP”) is to determine whether injunctive relief is available to SEP holders. Undoubtedly, in negotiation with a standard implementer, injunction is the most powerful weapon for an SEP holder, and will exert significant influence on the final license terms. Consequently, the court’s attitude towards SEP holder’s injunction claim is an important leverage in a fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (“FRAND”) license negotiation. The court’s attitude will also have an influence on whether and how hold-up or reverse hold-up may happen.

Taking the Iwncomm v. Sonycase as an illustration On March 22, 2017, the Beijing IP Court (the “trial court”) issued a decision on a high-profile case Iwncomm v. Sony concerning infringement of a standard essential patent (SEP). This case has drawn extensive attention in China’s IP community because it is the first SEP-based injunction granted by a Chinese court, and it involves quite a few issues lack of clarifications in the patent practice, such as patent exhaustion, implied license, contributory infringement, and divided infringement on multi-step claims. This article provides a brief discussion on the case and these issues. We will discuss the latest development of SEP in China in a separate blog.

Pharmaceutical polymorph patents are regarded as effective means and important secondary pharmaceutical patents to extend the life cycle of pharmaceutical patent protection. However, the inventiveness evaluation criteria for pharmaceutical polymorph patents have become much stricter in China while the amount of patent application keeps soaring.

In June 2008, China announced the Outline of National IP Strategy (“IP Strategy”), which set up a roadmap for China to become a country of high level of IP creation, utilization and protection by 2020.