The Swiss agrochemical giant Syengenta recently announced that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit in the First intermediate People's Court of Shanghai.

The lawsuit against the Chinese respondent, Changsheng Fine Chemical came after Changsheng’s ambitious promotion of thiamethoxam during two major trade events in Shanghai, the AgrochemShow and AgrochemEx. Syngenta alleged that thiamethoxam is still patent protected in China and demanded that the company cease illegal production and market promotion of the insecticide.

In 2004, Syngenta successfully filed and won a similar lawsuit against two Chinese companies, Yancheng Lvye Chemical and Yancheng Yongli Chemical. The Swiss giant protected its patent and received a written apology and an agreement for compensation from the two defendants. However, Thiamethoxam is set to lose its patent protection by July 23 this year, and Chinese companies are champing at the bit to secure market share in the vacuum created by Syengenta’s loss of patent. Apart from Syngenta and its branch in China, several other Chinese companies have successively obtained ICAMA registration of Thiamethoxam in recent years. The Chinese ICAMA registrants are listed in the table 1

Table1. Chinese ICAMA Registrants of Thiamethoxam

It is worth noting that the ICAMA registration applicants besides the patentee can still obtain the registration certification as long as the ICAMA is satisfied with the data. As the largest agrochemical supplier in the world, China does not want any delayed circulation of post-patented products in it’s territory and agrochemical manufacturers are continually seeking to benefit from out of patent products. In the next five years 31 agrochemicals (See Table 2) will lose their patent protection in China which will inevitably lead to a large increase in ICAMA registration and production of these products. However, branded products from MNCs have a reputation for quality which is often lacking from the generics produced by Chinese companies and thus Chinese enterprise are not expected to secure a sizeable  profits from global market for these products in the short-term.

Table2. Agrochemicals to be patent expired in the next five years

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