In recent times, commercial activities of companies exercising market power through their intellectual property rights have increasingly come under the scrutiny of the EU competition authorities. Intellectual Property and Competition Law: New Frontiers looks at how the leveraging strategies of Microsoft, the patent enhancement strategies of Astra Zeneca and Rambus, and the reverse payment settlements in the pharmaceutical sector have all attracted competition intervention, and how the courts have been forced to decide whether intellectual property issues are the primary subject matter of the case, or peripheral to that.
Drawing on these judgments, and others, this timely book brings together leading figures from practice and from academia who examine the increasingly complex and often strained relationship between intellectual property and competition law. Focusing primarily on EU law, but with valuable insight into US law, they highlight areas where new frontiers are emerging in the interface between the two, including; refusal to grant access to trade secrets; the new product test in consumer welfare; competition law in the pharmaceutical sector; standard setting; and FRAND (Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory terms) commitments. The book also considers the way in which the Commission's proposed changes to the application of Article 102 EC may impact on the protection of intellectual property rights.
In the post-Microsoft litigation era, this timely book captures the range of current thinking on the subject. The impressive list of contributors brings together leading figures from academia and practice, from intellectual property and competition law, and from law and economics, offering unrivalled expert analysis of this complex area.

When this book was first published in 1967, it was one of the first pieces of research to systematically examine the manpower problems associated with rapidly changing technology. It discusses issues such as technological change and unemployment, changes in the structure of employment, the mobility of labour, occupational structure and adjustment, hours of work, and labour-management relations. Its findings suggest that structural unemployment and redundancy are only two of a host of difficulties accompanying technical progress. Although the book originated in Sweden its relevance is clear to other Western european countries and researchers and policy-makers in the USA.

When this book was first published in 1967, it was one of the first pieces of research to systematically examine the manpower problems associated with rapidly changing technology. It discusses issues such as technological change and unemployment, changes in the structure of employment, the mobility of labour, occupational structure and adjustment, hours of work, and labour-management relations. Its findings suggest that structural unemployment and redundancy are only two of a host of difficulties accompanying technical progress. Although the book originated in Sweden its relevance is clear to other Western european countries and researchers and policy-makers in the USA.

Widely read and appreciated in its first edition by students, academics and junior practitioners, EU Competition Law and Intellectual Property Rights was the first book to offer an accessible introduction to the interface between competition law and intellectual property rights.
Now fully updated, but retaining the accessible approach, it continues to represent an ideal gateway to this increasingly dynamic interface, offering a sound introduction to the topic based on thorough legal analysis. It provides a foundation to EU competition law rules as they relate to intellectual property rights, and explores how such a template can be applied to existing intellectual property rights and adapted to new technologies such as telecommunications and information technology. It demonstrates how, both under the EU law and as a matter of economic policy, EU competition law must provide a set of outer limits to, and a framework of rules which regulate, the exploitation and licensing of intellectual property rights.
A group of landmark cases since the first edition - the Microsoft case and its predecessor concerned with database rights, the IMS case - has extended the scope of Article 102 TFEU to a refusal to license interface codes. Article 102 has also been applied in the Astra Zeneca case to regulate the behavior of pharmaceutical companies and the pharmaceutical sector has recently experienced a sectoral enquiry. Finally, the field of industrial standards, patent ambushes and FRAND obligations has become the subject of competition law scrutiny. Under Article 101 TFEU, the modernization reforms and the new Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation 772/2004 together with the Technology Transfer Guidelines have quite radically reformed the method that lawyers must use when analysing the limits of clauses in intellectual property licensing. It requires greater economic understanding, offers less legal certainty but allows more flexibility than its predecessor. The book offers a comprehensive insight to these new developments in a textbook style ideal for those approaching the subject for the first time, or a useful reference for those with more experience.