Legal Effects of the Nigerian Patent Law on Sale of Drugs and Consumer Protection in Nigeria
The essence of the law of patent is usually to protect inventions especially ones that are new and those that improve on the new ones. In effect, patent confers the right to exclude others, generally, from exercising those rights the law confers on the patentee. The major beneficiaries of patent often include scientists, researchers, professors, pharmacists, engineers and extendedly the consumers. However, as the task of this work demands, the concentration will be on health related inventions. That is, the legal effects of patent laws on pharmaceuticals or drugs and other edibles. The legal protection available to consumers will also be discussed in the light of the customs and practices of trade in Nigerian. This will then lead us to an examination of how the law relating to patent has been able or failed to safeguard public health care system in Nigeria. Consequently, issues regarding consumer rights and the corresponding right of the buyer for goods to be of merchantable quality especially regarding the enormity of the problem of counterfeit drugs will be discussed.
