A product patent protects a product. It offers high protection to the original inventor to reduce the competition for the same product. Whereas, a process patent protects the process through which one manufactures the product and not the product. It reduces the element of monopoly in the market. As India is a part of TRIPS agreement, the agreement requires all its members to shift their patent regime from process to product patent.
Product Patent
Under this regime, the patent is granted to the original inventor of the product. Here are a few characteristic features of a Product Patent:
- The grant of a product patent implies that no other person other than the inventor can manufacture the same product using the same process or any other process.
- Product patent provides a ‘True Monopoly’ right to the inventor
- Product patents are considered to be a higher level of protection compared process patents.
Process Patent
As the name says, a process patent is granted only to a particular process and not to the end product that is a result of such a process.
- The protection is seen as a limited parent. This is because any other manufacturer or inventor can create the same product using a different process.
- A process patent gives a low rage of protection to the inventor. Hence, the chances of competitors reverse engineering the product are high.
- Also, there can be multiple process patents for a single product.
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