China’s Supreme People’s Court (SPC) on March 10 announced that four administrative patent cases in which the top court issued rulings related to medicines in 2019 and 2020 had been selected to be included in the United Nations’ Case Law Database Intellectual Property and Public Health, on its official WeChat account.

This database consists of a systematic collection of the summaries of notable judgments adopted by national or regional judicial organs of the members of the World Trade Organization (WTO). The summaries have been developed with a view to support a better understanding of key intellectual property issues that relate to access to medicines.

The four patent cases are as follows.

China National Intellectual Property Administration v. Jiangsu Targetpharma Laboratories (Jiangsu) Co., Ltd.

CHINA NATIONAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ADMINISTRATION (国家知识产权局), Plaintiff-Appellant

JIANGSU TARGETPHARMA LABORATORIES (JIANGSU) CO., LTD. (江苏靶标生物医药研究所有限公司), Defendant-Appellee

HIGH-TECH RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF NANJING UNIVERSITY, CHANGZHOU (常州南京大学高新技术研究院), Defendant-Appelle

Case docket no.: （2020）最高法知行终35号

Case docket no. English transliteration: 35, second instance (终), administrative case (行), intellectual property (知), (2020) Supreme People’s Court (（2020）最高法)

Grünenthal GmbH v. China National Intellectual Property Administration

GRÜNENTHAL GMBH (格吕伦塔尔有限公司), Plaintiff-Appellant

CHINA NATIONAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ADMINISTRATION (国家知识产权局), Defendant-Appellee

Case docket no.: （2019）最高法知行终12号

Case docket no. English transliteration: 12, second instance (终), administrative case (行), intellectual property (知), (2019) Supreme People’s Court (（2019）最高法)

DAI v. China National Intellectual Property Administration

DAI JINLIANG, Plaintiff-Appellant

CHINA NATIONAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ADMINISTRATION (国家知识产权局), Defendant-Appellee

Case docket no.: （2019）最高法知行终16号

Case docket no. English transliteration: 16, second instance (终), administrative case (行), intellectual property (知), (2019) Supreme People’s Court (（2019）最高法)

AstraZeneca AB v. China National Intellectual Property Administration

ASTRAZENECA AB (阿斯利康（瑞典）有限公司), Plaintiff-Appellant

CHINA NATIONAL INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY ADMINISTRATION (国家知识产权局), Defendant-Appellee

Case docket no.: （2019）最高法知行终33号

Case docket no. English transliteration: 33, second instance (终), administrative case (行), intellectual property (知), (2019) Supreme People’s Court (（2019）最高法)

The case law database is the product of United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD)'s Intellectual Property Unit's work for over a decade on public health. It has been updated with the support of the South Center, an intergovernmental organization of developing nations founded in 1995.

The four cases are available here in the UN case law database.