This article is aimed at identifying and analyzing the specifics of the network model of innovation in the pharmaceutical industry in the context of intellectual property protection on the example of a number of foreign countries and Russia. The starting point of the research is the currently observed networking - the introduction of non-market communication, which is beginning to replace purely exchange, monetary regulators in the economy, law, and other spheres of society. The article examines the issue of acceptability (objective necessity) of applying (accepting) «open» innovations in the pharmaceutical industry and some facets of the influence of this trend in the field of law. Specific examples are used to discuss various forms of expression of the open innovation strategy practiced in the pharmaceutical industry and some of its prospects. At the same time, some aspects of the protection of intellectual property rights obtained during the implementation (realization) of the «open» innovation strategy in pharmaceutical sector are studied in the traditional and network (using blockchain technology) format. The relevance, theoretical and practical significance of such a research is due to the fact that both network «open» (innovative) and «closely-held» (traditional) methods of developing new scientific knowledge have their pros and cons, which can currently slow down or accelerate scientific progress and promote innovative growth. Foreign experience can be useful in finding answers to similar questions related to the development, justification and adoption of collaborations based on «open» innovations by our country, and the fact that this study serves to fill in the existing gap in the development of legal and other approaches of foreign countries in the field of modern research. The author's results, among other things, are presented in the fact that currently the protection of intellectual property from unauthorized use is still traditionally based on agreements, but can already be performed in a modern network way - using distributed ledger technology - blockchain, that reliability is due to hardware control over any changes in the protocols or information in the network, its copying, easiness of establishing and verifying its authorship, which increases the chances of successful development of the OI strategy.