ABSTRACT
A patent protects a new technological development, a practical invention. In simple terms, it gives you an exclusive right in law for a period of time to prevent others from exploiting a new invention in the country where the patent is held. The monopoly it gives you can be sold or licensed so that you can share it with other people or even give them all your exclusive right in it for the whole life of the patent or for a more limited period of time. The price of this legal monopoly, apart from the fees you have to pay the State to acquire and keep it, is that details of the new invention must be published in an official journal which anyone may read and on the expiry of the patent anyone may exploit the invention without the consent of the patent owner.
