The Patent Protection Of The Second Medical Use Invention

At the age of knowledge economy, the protection for patent is important in various fields. The competition is competition of the patent in the society today. This is true of the pharmaceutical industry. Because the innovation capability of the most pharmaceutical companies in our country is not enough, company is small and lacks of funds, sometimes a single enterprise doing drug research and development is unrealistic. If you develop a new route of administration, dose, or new drug indications, you can reduce investment costs, cycle time and risk. The second medical use includes the new route of administration, dose, or new drug indications. Therefore, discussing the patentability and the legal protection of second medical use is very important.This article includes five parts which discusses the invention patent protection of the second medical use. The first part introduces invalidation case of Merck, and the relevant concepts of the second medical use invention. The second part analyses the legislative status of the patentability of second medical use invention of Europe, Germany, Britain etc. The third part discusses the patentability of the second medical invention combining with our national legislation, practice operating and foreign legal precedent. The fourth part discusses the infringement judgment of the second medical use invention combining with foreign practical experience, The last part discusses the application practice of the second medical use invention using evidential analysis, and makes some suggestions.Basically china has recognized the patentability of new drug indications and new routes of administration, but the patent protection of new dose of medication is not defined clearly. Our country should make dose patentable. For the infringement judging of the second medical paten, when second medicinal use invention is new drug indications, it should use the form of the product protection of the limited use. For new routes of administration and dosage, it should use the form of absolute protection of product patents.