A patent grant confers a 20-year monopoly, but this privilege remains strictly bound by sovereign overrides for the public interest.
1. Rights of a Patentee
A patent grant gives the patentee the exclusive right to prevent third parties, who do not have their consent, from the acts of making, using, offering for sale, selling, or importing the patented product or process for those purposes.
2. The Compulsory Licensing System (Section 84)
At any time after the expiration of three years from the date of the grant of a patent, any person interested can apply to the Controller for the grant of a Compulsory License on these grounds:
- That the reasonable requirements of the public with respect to the patented invention have not been satisfied.
- That the patented invention is not available to the public at a reasonably affordable price.
- That the patented invention is not worked in the territory of India.
The IPAB upheld the Controller's decision granting India's first Compulsory License to Natco Pharma for the manufacture of "Nexavar" (a generic version of Bayer's patented anti-cancer drug). Natco was permitted to sell the drug at Rs. 8,800 per month (compared to Bayer's price of Rs. 2,80,000 per month) while paying a 7% royalty to Bayer, satisfying public health interest under Section 84.