Since the widespread of COVID-19 pandemic, the development of anti-pandemic medicine is urgently in need. The China-U.S. relationship becomes tense increasingly, under the new norm, make sure that enterprises knowing the Export Administration Regulations thoroughly are essential. Two topics were focused on and discussed in this webinar, which includes ‘Drug repositioning for COVID-19’ and ‘New Development of Trade Secrets and Export Controls under the “New Norms” of U.S.-China Relationship’.

SheppardMullin is a full-service Law Firm with more than 950 Lawyers. Fifteen Offices of SheppardMullin locate in places including Brussels, Century City, Chicago, Del Mar Heights, Dallas, London, Los Angele, and New York.

The first topic of this webinar focused on the drug repositioning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drug repositioning, which is the investigation of the existing, failed, or non-medical agents for new therapeutic purposes, becomes significant since there was not enough time to develop brand new drugs due to the sudden emergence and quick spread of COVID-19. Several challenges for patenting exist in the progress of drug repositioning, such as the patentability and the method or use claims are not eligible for patent protection in India, Colombia, Egypt, Peru etc. The lawyers, Alex Nie and Jing Liu explained the advanced patenting strategies to overcome the existing challenges of drug repositioning.

The next topic of the webinar was the ‘New Development of Trade Secrets and Export Controls under the “New Norms” of U.S.-China Relationship’. Harris Gao, Will Chen and May Lu presented detailed explanations regarding this issue. According to the views of them, the allegations of trade secrets misappropriation must be taken extremely seriously. Moreover, the proper measures must be taken to ensure that no employee is using trade secrets of its former employers. And the preserving evidence of independent development is the best defense against trade secrets claims.

 The audiences raised their questions online through chat-box, and the Q&A session was held in the end. The webinar of SheppardMullin was concluded smoothly, and the topics such as drug repositioning patenting and trade secrets regarding the China-U.S. Relationship ‘new norm’ will be focused continuously by China IP.