Pharmaceuticals

Product vs Process Patent

The product patent is an exclusive right given to the original inventor of the
product. To that end, no other manufacturer can provide the same product from
there forth. The salient features of this patent are as follows:

1. After the patent, there is no competitor left for the producer as the product is
patented.

2. It provides a higher level of protection than the process patent.

Now, let us look into process patent

The process patent is granted for the manufacturing process of a product, but not
the product itself. To that end, any other person can use different process to get
to the same product. It has following implications:

1. There can be more than one producer of the product if the process that they are
using for production is different.

2. The inventor of the product does not have a firm protection

3. There is no element of monopoly in regards to product (the product

manufacturing is not exclusive to one company)

As for the reason as to why TRIPs advocate the shift from process to product, it
is pretty natural to understand. The reason for that is well being of the inventor.
The more an inventor is protected, the more prices can be extracted for products.
It is because of this very reason that the price of 7000 rupees iPhone is about
50000 rupees, to give royalties to the patent holders.