The Long Protection Period. Pursuant to Article 33, the duration of patent protection will not cease until a period of at least 20 years from the date on which the patent application was filed has passed. This means that, under the TRIPs Agreement, Member States have to grant patents, for a minimum of 20 years, to any inventions of a pharmaceutical product or process that fulfils the established criteria of novelty, inventiveness and usefulness.95 International conventions before TRIPs did not specify most of the minimum standards for patents. Indeed, when the Uruguay Round of WTO trade negotiations was launched in 1986, more than 50 countries were not granting patents on pharmaceuticals96 and some 20 WTO Members still did not do so by the time of the conclusion of the TRIPs negotiations. A few of these countries did not provide process protection in this area as well. The duration of patents was less than 20 years in many countries.97 This provision may result in an increase in the duration of the patent owner’s monopoly in many Member States where there is no therapeutic competition. In the pharmaceutical field, the logical consequence of this provision is that drugs will be sold at high prices, as is the case for all monopoly products, for a longer period of time, and manufacturers of generic products will have to wait longer before they can produce the drug in question and sell it at a more accessible price. It is thus in regard to the length of protection that the Agreement will have one of its most important harmonizing effects. Unlike other provisions, which leave Member States a certain amount of room for manoeuvre, the Agreement is particularly strict and specific concerning the duration of patents.98
