Patents are regarded in two ways , as a certificate and as a juridical relationship. The inventor or patentee gets licensed by KIPI , there is a legal relationship between Inventor or Patentee and on the other hand one has KIPI representing the state. Article 27 of UDHR says that Intellectual Property should have a balance. Patents started their lives not as IP but as a system of helping free trade , one receives letters patentes to assist one in trading.
When one wanted to participate in trade , one required patent. The modern patent law is traceable to UK and the system of Monopoly , patents were granted at the discretion of the Monarch. Now it has become an IP issue rather than a business issue. In 1789 it was incorporated into the US Constitution Article 1881. A Patent is a bundle of rights that can protect an individual and it carries duties and obligations , duties to disclose to the patent office , on payment office on grant of registration and renew etc. there is also the obligation of compulsory licensing if one does not meet the conditions.
Is Patent a Monopoly? This is a controversial issue because for one to be granted a patent , one has to meet many standards. It is not really a monopoly like in other sectors but in this case one has to invent something. Secondly besides being intelligent and meeting the basic standard , one has to be good in business to secure market presence. When ones patent exclusive rights is limited in scope in terms of duration a patent is not a perpetual monopoly and is only protected for 20 years and the protection is not even exclusive.
One may suffer compulsory licensing anytime which means it is not exclusive.
Patents in the IP Monopoly
It has been argued that patents are the most important in IP and in many universities it is taught in a lot of lectures as opposed to only about two for trademarks and copyright. The argument is because patents involve inventions and the most sophisticated technologies. They also require long procedures and thirdly it has been argued that protection of Patents if very high partly because of its sophistication. There is a lot of protection for patents. Patents generally have the tendency to secure very high revenues for the inventors , for example if somebody invented a vaccine for HIV this would be a goldmine. It is unlike some areas of copyright. Patents are the most controversial and notorious because in most cases it deals with life and death issues as in HIV drugs.