Patent:

An invention is eligible for patent, if it is new, involves an inventive step (it is non-obvious)  and  is capable of industrial application (it  is useful). If an application is made for patent of an  invention, a country has to enquire if it fulfils all these conditions and has to register the patent  if the conditions are fulfilled.

Invention of both a product and a process can be patented. It is not obligatory for a country to register patents  for:  (i) diagnostic, therapeutic and surgical methods and  (ii) plants and animals and essentially biological processes for the production of plants and animals. But a country may, if it so wishes, includes them also in its patents registration system.  It is not obligatory for a country to provide patent  registration for plant varieties, but  it is obligatory to provide protection to it through what is called a sui generis system, meaning thereby that a country may devise  its own method  to provide protection for plant varieties.

A  country may  refuse patent  on  tke  grounds of  protectior,  of: (i) public morality, (ii) human, animal or plant life or health and (iii) environment. The  period  of patent  is at least twenty years from the date of filing of  the application for the patent.

In  the case of patent  on a product, the  IPR  owner has the right to prevent anybody from producing, selling or  importing the product without the consent of  the  IPR owner. For the process, the  IPR  owner has  the  right to prevent anybody  from using the process without the  IPR owner's consent. Thus a product  cannot be manufactured using that process without the  IPR owner consenting  to it. 

The government can give a  license to a person to use a patent without the authorisation  of  the IPR  owner.  This is  called compulsory license to distinguish  '  it  from  the  voluntary license given by  the  IPR owner. The Agreement on TRIPS' does not prescebe the grounds on which compulsory license can be given  by government; but  it prescribes certain conditions, procedures and limitations regarding compulsory  license.

One important condition is that the proposed user of the patent  should have made efforts  to get authorisation from the IPR owner and would have failed  to get  it within  a reasonable period (the period has not been  defined in the Agreement). Also, the  IPR  owner  has  to  be  paid  adequate remuneration (what is adequate has not been specified in the agreement).