Pfizer wins final judgment on patent invalidation dispute

On October 27, the Beijing Higher People's Court made the final judgment on the patent invalidation disputes between Pfizer Inc. and the Patent Reexamination Board (PRB) of the State Intellectual Property Office. The court revoked the decision made by the PRB, in which the patent for viagra was invalidated.

According to the court, the PRB made a factual mistake by stating that there was lack of clear relation between the curative effect and experimental data. Therefore the Beijing Higher People's Court decided to revoke the decision of patent invalidation made by the PRB.

In 1994, Pfizer Inc. filed a patent application for Viagra with the State Intellectual Property Office. On September 19, 2001, Pfizer was granted with the patent right for Viagra. Then 12 Chinese companies, who believed that viagra did not involve creativity, jointly filed an application for patent invalidation to the PRB. In July 2004, the PRB decided that the patent for viagra was invalid, for the description of the patent was not sufficiently disclosed.

In September 2004, Pfizer institute a proceeding against the PRB and the 12 Chinese companies were listed as the third party. In June 2006, the Beijing 1st Intermediate People's Court ruled that the description of Pfizer's patent had included experimental data and the decision made by the PRB should be revoked.

After the first instance judgment, the 12 Chinese companies appealed to the Beijing Higher People's Court. On October 27, the Beijing Higher People's Court maintained the first instance judgment.