The Exploration On The Issue Of Disclosure During The Examination Of TCM Patents

Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) is one form of traditional medicaments, and insufficiency might occur when protection of TCM inventions is sought through the patent system which is a western import. Consequently, it is necessary to establish and standardize the examination criterion for TCM patents. Generally, no research man is ivory-towered and makes progress in his study. The present invention is, therefore, based on the disclosure of technical information of the prior art, while carrying the information which will become the prior art therefrom. On an effort to sort out the concepts and significance of "the disclosure of the prior art" and "the disclosure of the technical information of patent applications", the author, with integrating the characteristics of TCM field, points out the problems concerning the "disclosure" of technical information which is encountered in TCM patents, and further makes suggestions on the solutions, which include: make an explicit definition on the "disclosure" of TCM knowledge which largely depends on oral dissemination;clarify the principle by which the problem of whether the technological standards of TCM industry and enterprises pertain to state of the art can be decided;the novelty of TCM extracts which are worded by herbal fingerprinting should be recognize;the variation of the effective components of TCM should be considered novel;make judgment according to the specific situation when the terms of Chinese and western medicine in regard to the therapeutic effect differ;establish exceptional disclosure requirements for TCM patents under certain circumstance;standardize the way in which therapeutic data of TCM are disclosed;work out a definite examination regulation on the issue of nonstandard TCM names;expound the qualifications for sufficient disclosure of TCM extracts.