Technically, the drug companies conceded scarcely more than the state's court costs, which they agreed to pay. In the grander scheme of things they ceased to be the villains alleged to be responsible for millions of South Africans, and their neighbours, having no access to AIDS drugs.
Patents are no longer centre stage.
Importantly, the companies can still go back to court to assert their rights on a case-bycase basis. Government would use this to acquire cheap generic equivalents of locally patented medicine by any means possible. Love's hope was that Pretoria, released from its own patents act, would push the envelope of what was permissible under Trips, using compulsory licenses to import generic copies of drugs made in countries like India, which does not yet recognise drug patents, as well as to manufacture generics in SA for both domestic use and especially ticklish under Trips for export to other needy countries. This is common and cannot be challenged under Trips. Yet say prices could be brought that low on a broader scale.