| Traditional Chinese Medicine, called TCM for short, has a long history in China. It is the fruit of Chinese culture, history and wisdom. Nowadays, TCM still plays important role in protection of people’s health, promotion of medical sciences, acceleration of economical growth, and strengthening the soft power of the nation. At present background of Chinese Materia Medica industry globalization, it is significantly important to protect the patents of Chinese Materia Medica. The essay compares and researches the differences in the field of Chinese Materia Medica patent protection between in and out of China, on the basis of international patent data gained by searching. The essay is divided into several parts as follows.The part of Preface briefly describes the fundamental situation of TCM and its industrial globalization, as the historical background of the researches in the essay. The total amount of China’s import and export of Chinese Materia Medica reached4.22billion USD in2013, and featured in three aspects. Firstly the development speed of the import and export of herbal extraction and Chinese decoction pieces material still ranks the first in the total import and export of Chinese Materia Medica. Secondly Chinese Materia Medica is still mainly exported to those conventional target markets. Thirdly it is the first time that the exportation to Japan decreased. This part also briefly presents the significance of patent protection of Chinese Materia Medica.The First part explains and defines three main concepts, including Chinese Materia Medica and its related natural drugs, Chinese Materia Medica invention patent, and patent protection. Chinese Materia Medica means the drugs used for disease prevention and treatment under the guidance of TCM basic theory. During discuss of Chinese Materia Medica related patent outside China, the essay relatively extends the concept of Chinese Materia Medica. It covers not only Chinese Materia Medica related patents, but also related patents of natural medicines, including herbal, animal, and mineral medicines, during searching, statistics and cleaning of the data used in the essay. The Chinese Materia Medica patent means the patent applied and focused on Chinese Materia Medica, which can be divided into three categories, including invention, utility model, and appearance design. Patent protection means the measure and channel of taking patents as an instrument to protect Chinese Materia Medica related intellectual properties.The Second part states the data sources and search strategies. All the data mentioned in the essay is based on comprehensive searching on the Shanghai Intellectual Property Platform, and Thomson Innovation Databank. The time scales from1985to2012. In IPC (International Patent Classification) system, Chinese Materia Medica related patents are concentrated in the big category A, Human life demands. Besides, through referring to the Chinese Materia Medica related dictionaries, textbooks and international and domestic relevant standards, the research also takes English names, medicinal material names and Latin names of common seen animal and mineral medicines, as references during keywords searching strategy making.The Third part explains methods of analysis, comparison and research, adopted in the essay. On the basis of data gained, the essay adopts time series analysis method on time-quantity trends of Chinese Materia Medica related patents application, patent technology life cycle method on development phases judgment for Chinese Materia Medica related patents, IPC classification search method on indications and dosage forms of Chinese Materia Medica related patents, competitive intelligence analysis method on main research institutes, and patent keywords clustering method on technology hot points of Chinese Materia Medica related patents.The Fourth part describes the results of data searching and cleaning. This part adopts the methods of listing and diagramming, to present the relationships among Chinese Materia Medica related patent application quantities in China and other countries in the same period, the relationship between annual Chinese Materia Medica related patent application increasing speeds in China and other countries, the general time-quantity situation of Chinese Materia Medica related patent application and applicants in China and other countries, the data statistical results of Chinese Materia Medica related patents on different application forms, the proportions occupied by different indications and dosage forms of Chinese Materia Medica related patents in China and other countries, and the key words hot points of Chinese Materia Medica in China and other countries.The Fifth part, as the main body of the essay, finds out differences of Chinese Materia Medica related patents in and out of China, from various aspects of viewpoints, and analyzes the reasons of those differences. The annual application number of Chinese Materia Medica related patents in China exceeds greatly of the number in any other countries every year. And the gap grows yearly. In the past years, the increasing speed of Chinese Materia Medica related patents in China fluctuated obviously, and so did the speed in Korea, US and Japan. Although the application number of patents increases every year in the other countries, the increasing speed drops gradually. The situation is totally different in China. From the begin of this century, China entered the developing phase in the technology life cycle of Chinese Materia Medica, and stayed in the phase for more than ten year. Even now China still stays in the phase of developing. In other countries, the situation shows characteristics of mature or decline phases. In US, it has evident characteristics of mature and decline phases, and there are signals of entering recovery phase and even the second life cycle. The characteristics of decline phase are obvious in EU, India and Japan. Australia has already finished one completed life cycle. The situation is special in Korea. It has already entered the mature phase in the second life cycle. Generally, the fields where indications of Chinese Materia Medica related patents concentrates in both China and other countries are A61P1, A61P29and A61P17. The dosage forms where patents concentrated in both China and other countries are A61K9/20, A61L9/48. There is no evident difference in and out of China. The dosage form patents concentrated in Germany is special, and different from any other countries including China. Compared with other countries, the technology hot points of patents in China covers large scaled fields, and has no obviously concentrated fields. Comparatively, other countries have their own highly concentrated fields of research hot points of technology in Chinese Materia Medica patents. With analysis, the reasons of the above mentioned differences mainly includes: China has started to pay attention to the protection of Chinese Materia Medica related patents, and took it as an important measure to protect Chinese Materia Medica intellectual properties, and achieved fruitful goals. The demands for TCM continuously grows world widely. The international investment in the scientific research and development on herbal or natural medicines increases rapidly, and has kept this strong trend for almost20years. It has been a focus point of international science undertaking and big pharmaceutical enterprises, to explore new drug and healthcare products from traditional medicines, which are represented by TCM, filtrate new active compounds and look for skills, methods and drugs of human disease prevention and treatment, from Chinese Materia Medica. The Chinese institutes and enterprises have strengthened their protection of patents, and fewer and fewer Chinese Materia Medica related patents could be robbed by organizations or persons from other countries. The cost of application and keeping of patents in China is cheaper than in other countries. In the field of Chinese Materia Medica or herbal medicine research, China has much bigger numbers of scientists and institutes than any other countries, and is advanced globally in scientific research level and equipments investment.The Conclusion part is a summary of the essay. The part summarized the consequences of comparison on Chinese Materia Medica related patents in and out of China. On that basis, the essay provides technically early warning on patents for the Chinese Materia Medica industry, and intelligence support for strategy making on Chinese Materia Medica intellectual property protection. This part raises seven advices on intellectual property protection policies and measures using patent protection methods. Firstly we shall strengthen trainings to heighten the awareness of the whole industry on Chinese Materia Medica intellectual property protection. Secondly we shall gradually establish a special Chinese Materia Medica related patent protection mechanism. Thirdly we shall heighten the innovative abilities of Chinese enterprises. Fourthly we shall continuously support the development of Chinese Materia Medica industry. Fifthly we shall strengthen the construction of a talent team. Sixthly we shall gradually develop and extend TCM scientific research trade in services, with making full use of abundant resources of Chinese Materia Medica and herbal medicines. Finally we shall strengthen international cooperation on patent protection and the international exchange and collaboration in the field of TCM. |
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