The Curious Case of Compulsory Licenses in Patents

Patent rights are monopoly rights granted exclusively to the inventor of the invention. Such monopoly rights are however, not absolute in so far as its exercise and exploitation by the inventor is concerned. Patent rights are qualified by the exercise of Compulsory Licenses to be granted to the State. In such cases of unwarranted use and exploitation of his invention by the Inventor, a third party may be granted and transferred the right to work the patent to the advantage of the public in a manner that best suits and fulfills the purpose of an invention of a life-saving drug. Thus,this flexibility empowers the States to end the monopoly rights enjoyed by the patent holder in case of his failure to fulfill the public policy objective and this flexibility becomes all the more important in the context of third world countries when they are faced with the dilemma of combating the public health crisis which is at stake due to unaffordablility of patent drugs. Under these circumstances it becomes important to forgo the patent rights in a drug so as to give the rights of making generic copies of the same