is granted by a government agency which, as a result, grants the recipient intellectual property rights, which confers on its owner the exclusive right to prevent third parties from commercially exploiting - making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the invention, which is protected by patent for a limited period of time (generally 20 years).
Patent protection is granted for inventions, which are products or processes, provided that they are new, involve an inventive step and is capable of industrial application. In order to obtain patent protection, technical information about the invention must be disclosed to the public in a patent application.