Current Status Of Intellectual Property Protection Of Traditional Chinese Medicines

With the development of internationalization and modernization of traditional Chinese medicine,traditional Chinese medicine attracts more and more attention of developed countries.In recent years,although more and more attention has been paid to the development of traditional Chinese medicine,many valuable resources of traditional Chinese medicine have been lost due to the lack of protection of traditional Chinese medicine and the imperfection of its legal protection system.At the same time,it also reflects the importance of further strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights of traditional Chinese medicine,so as not to make our advantageous resources for other countries.However,although certain protection can be granted for traditional Chinese medicine under the existing intellectual property rights system,some cases where patents on traditional Chinese medicine have been applied for in other countries occur frequently,which means that at the present stage,the issue is not whether intellectual property rights shall be granted for traditional Chinese medicine but how to strengthen and improve the measures for protecting intellectual property rights of traditional Chinese medicine.The 13th Five-year Plan of China emphasizes that we should insist on the innovation of Chinese medicine over inheritance,which shows that China does not have any legal protection of intellectual property rights of traditional Chinese medicine at present,but because of its own complexity,when it wants to obtain some kind of intellectual property rights protection,it often has some disputes or difficulties such as being unable to obtain some kind of intellectual property rights protection.Therefore,the protection of traditional Chinese medicine,is not whether the implementation of China's intellectual property rights so simple;but whether the existing legal system is applicable to or conducive to the protection and development of Chinese medicine?In addition,the patent law is still the main way to protect TCM,and it is also the most problematic and prominent way to protect TCM.It is noteworthy that the State has been paying more and more attention to such issues as patent examination of traditional Chinese medicines.In 2002,the State Intellectual Property Office("SIPO")released the Guiding Opinions on Patent Examination of Traditional Chinese Medicines(Draft for Comments)(the "Guiding Opinions")for the traditional Chinese medicine("TCM")patent examination guidelines to the public.The Guiding Opinions provide detailed guiding opinions for the "creative" examination,"legal" examination and whether the instructions are fully disclosed in the TCM invention patent applications.In particular,the "three-step" creative examination greatly helps the patent examination of TCM compositions and TCM compositions.This article will focus on the research and analysis of intellectual property rights regarding traditional Chinese medicine(TCM)protection and the current protection situation.It is hoped that some suggestions can be made to address certain obstacles in TCM intellectual property protection based on the guiding opinions of the Draft for Comment.