A/HRC/11/12 page 8 estimated that people living with HIV will become resistant to their first-line medicine regimens and will need second-line treatment which can currently cost between 9 and 19 times as much as first-line medicines. 15. Accessibility of medicines has different dimensions.20 This report specifically considers the dimension of financial affordability. In this regard intellectual property (IP) laws as they impact on the affordability of medicines can have a significant bearing on access to medicines.21 16. Current health inequalities regarding access to medicines demonstrate the need for States to respect their obligations under international law to protect the right to health. This includes ensuring that their laws and practices, including those related to IP, take into consideration the right to health and the need to ensure access to affordable medicines to all. This report highlights some measures that States can take to ensure that their national IP regimes protect the right to health. B. Intellectual property laws and access to medicines 17. IP law has an impact on the right to health, as it protects pharmaceutical products. It regulates the creation, use and exploitation of mental or creative labour and encompasses copyright, trademarks, geographical indications, industrial designs, layout designs of integrated circuits, patents and their designs, undisclosed information and trade secrets. 18. Patents confer legal rights on inventors, more importantly negative rights over process or product inventions. Patentees can, therefore, prevent persons not authorized by them from making, using, offering for sale, selling or importing the patented invention. Patents create monopolies, limit competition and allow patentees to establish high prices. While product patents confer absolute monopolies, process patents lead to relative monopolies.22 19. In regard to medicines, a product patent enables a patentee to set high prices. Higher standards of patent protection, which can reduce the number of easily granted patents, can 20 Accessibility has four dimensions; first, medicines must be accessible in all parts of the country; second, medicines must be affordable to all, including those living in poverty; third, medicines must be accessible without discrimination on any of the prohibited grounds; fourth, reliable information about medicines must be accessible to patients and health professionals for them to take well-informed decisions (A/61/338, para. 49). 21 Intellectual property laws can also affect medical research and this can bear upon access to medicines. The Commission on Intellectual Property, Innovation and Public Health (CIPIH) has noted that, “There is no evidence that the implementation of the TRIPS agreement in developing countries will significantly boost R&D in pharmaceuticals on Type II, and particularly Type III diseases. Insufficient market incentives are the decisive factor.” See footnote 9 above, p. 85. 22 Product patents can create absolute monopolies as they can restrict use of a product. Process patents only restrict the use of the patented process and therefore a generic version of the product could be made using an alternative process.