A patent refers to the legal ownership of property granted to the original inventor (Inventor Resources 1). In the United States, Patents are issued by US Patent and Trademark Office. A patent is issued in recognition of a unique and novel invention (Lehman 4). The issuance of patent excludes other people from having ownership claims on patented property, utilizing or selling an invention locally or internationally (Inventor Resources 1). The patentee or the person owning the patented property is legally allowed to enforce an invention without seeking the help of the patent authorizing entity.
The patents in the United States
The Congress through the legislation conferred the US Patent and Trademark Office the authority to oversee the issuance of patents (Inventor Resources 1). Some of the properties that can be patented include the invention of new machinery, a crucial process that has useful value and manufacturing of the new product. An example of a product that can be recognized through the issuance of a patent is the invention of a new pharmaceutical product.
A patentee must meet two conditions in order to receive a patent (Inventor Resources 1). One, the property to be patented must not have been patented by another party, used or published in the past. In other words, the property must have novelty or originality, that is, no other party has ever published or claimed ownership of the property in the past. Secondly, the property must not have been published in the United States. Once it is established that the property to receive a patent is original and has never been published elsewhere, the application is recognized and through a printed publication after one and a half years. The patent remains effective for 20 years after which the patentee must extend the legality of the patent.
The foreigners are not discriminated against applying for patents in the United States (Inventor Resources 1). However, the foreign applicant must consent through signing an oath or entering into a declaration. In addition, the applicant must not have applied for a patent in another nation prior to applying for a patent in the United States.
Patents in foreign nations
All the nations in the world require the conditions of novelty or originality and non-obviousness to be met before issuance of patents (Lehman 4). Nevertheless, many countries except the United States, Germany, Japan, and the UK do not seek proof to ascertain that the tests of non-obviousness and novelty have been met prior to recognition of a given patent (Lehman 4). One of these nations is France. France registers patents but cannot enforce them unless there is a judicial proceeding which determines whether the two tests have been met. Therefore, the people who violate a patent cannot face repercussions unless there is involvement of judicial proceeding.
The pharmaceutical companies and abuse of patents
The pharmaceutical companies that have property granted patent are disadvantaged during the application process compared to others (Lehman 7). The pharmaceutical companies are required to disclose the progress of the invention from the time of research to development of the pharmaceutical product. The time used during research and development of a pharmaceutical product is not excluded from the 20-year limit required to renew a patent from the date of application. Furthermore, the pharmaceutical companies are not allowed to have the exclusive right to patent protection. This implies other competitors in the pharmaceutical industry are allowed to access the patent for use in further or alternative research thus forcing the original patentee to market the product at a time when the patent is about to expire (Lehman 8). Also, the research and development of pharmaceutical product consume a lot of money thus making it difficult for people to afford quality healthcare. In 2002, the expenditure incurred on the research of pharmaceutics was approximately $26.4 billion.
The raising of pharmaceutical drugs
The pharmaceutical companies can be tempted to engage in malpractice such as increasing the cost of pharmaceutical products. One of the pharmaceutical companies that have been criticized in the past for raising the price of the pharmaceutical product is Turing Pharmaceuticals. Under the leadership of Martin Shkreli, Turing raised the price of a life-saving medicine called Daraprim by about 5,000%. Daraprim is used by HIV victims for treatment of the chronic disease. In 2015, the price of the drug in the United States was raised from $13.5 to $750 which outraged the citizens and the legislators. Another drug whose price has been increased is Albendazole. The drug is used to treat a tapeworm infection. The drug is sold at $300 per pill in the United States yet in other nations such as Mexico is sold at only $19 per 10 tablets.
A patent is applied to safeguard the innovation or invention of the patentee thus effectively legalizing the ownership of property. However, some pharmaceutical companies take advantage of the unsuspecting people to exploit them. The exploitation takes the form of raising the price of a pharmaceutical product without any legitimate reason.
Works Cited
Inventor Resources. General information concerning patents. United States Patent and Trademark Office, 2015. Retrieved from: https://www.uspto.gov/patents-getting-started/general-information-concerning-patents
Johnson, Carolyn. What happened to the $750 pill that catapulted Martin Shkreli to Infamy. The Washington Post, 2017. Retrieved from:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2017/08/01/what-happened-to-the-750-pill-that-catapulted-pharma-bro-martin-shkreli-to-infamy/?utm_term=.77ea4c30f96d
Lehman, Bruce. The Pharmaceutical Industry and the Patent System. The Pharmaceutical Industry and the Patent System, 2003. Retrieved from: https://users.wfu.edu/mcfallta/DIR0/pharma_patents.pdf
