Patenting of COVID-19 vaccines: Possibilities and Challenges
A patent is essentially an exchange between the inventor and the government, where the inventor releases his invention to the public with a view of creating such an invention and in return, the government grants the inventor an exclusive period of time during which he has absolute claim on the invention (who, when, where and how that invention is made, used or sold). This duration shall be used by the inventor to recover the expenses accrued in the form of time, money and energy for the development of the invention.
Research and development for a vaccine, or even a medical procedure, is worth billions of dollars. Patenting not only promotes innovation around the world, but also creates and confers on companies some kind of authority in terms of exclusivity, cost, manufacturing, sales a...