Relationship Between Competition Law And Intellectual Property

Introduction

The relationship between intellectual property rights and competition issues has attracted growing attention. Though IP law issues intellectual assets to the exclusive control of right owners, competition law strive to avoid market barriers and benefit consumers by encouraging competition among suppliers of goods, services and technologies. Such challenges are particularly complex in developing countries, the majority of which have little or no tradition in the application of competition law and policies. The concept of Intellectual property rights as developed in India cannot be divorced from the developments in the international arena as well as in the nation-to-nation relations. In particular, greater attention should be given

As a result of this apparent antagonism between the two, intellectual property rights regime was considered to be creating monopolies to spur innovation, while the competition law eliminates monopolies. In other words, rightful owners of IPRs are granted temporary monopoly by the law to recover the cost incurred by them in research and development and innovation process. As a result, these owners can earn rightful and reasonable profits so to encourage them to engage in further innovation. It has been seen in time that both competition law and intellectual property rights both perform complementary roles in driving innovation in today’s technologically dynamic markets. However, competition law and intellectual property law are two different bodies of law having their independent and different area of

The researcher(s) will also analyze some of the IPRs related competition issues and the role of competition law in regulating some anti-competitive dimensions in the exercise of IPRs (section 3 of the competition Act). In addition, Agreement on TRIPs and competition law and Anti-competitive settlements of intellectual property disputes will also be discussed.

Types of restraints

This relationship between the intellectual property law and competition law has evolved several types of restraints on competition within the market. While no one has ever thought to contend that licensing agreements are as per se anti-competitive , the focus of these restraints are typically licensing agreements which could adversely affect the competition in a market by dividing markets between the different enterprises and possibly delaying the development of various goods and services .

The concept of exclusive licensing, more specifically, has gained importance by unilateral market tactics of various enterprises, which include tie-in-arrangements , exclusive dealing, extension of IPR terms as well as horizontal agreements (like pooling and cross-licensing by parties collectively possessing market power), have attracted the attention of competition regulation authorities not in India only but across the globe