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Antitrust Liability For Refusal To License Intellectual Property: A Comparative Analysis And The International Setting, Rita Coco

Marquette Intellectual Property Law Review

Antitrust and IP law both share the goals of promoting innovation and benefiting consumers. A potential for conflict exists, however, when a dominant firm's refusal to license IP rights affects the dynamics of competition. Antitrust intervention in IP rights can reduce incentives to invest, whereas a failure to allow anticompetitive behavior can harm consumers and competitors while reducing the efficiency of the economic system. The author reviews the European and United States approaches to monopolization claims involving IP rights. The European approach is limited by the mismatch between national enforcement of IP rights and community enforcement of antitrust law. The …