The intersection of antitrust and technology licensing and transfer has become wildly confusing and complex. Just look at all the acronyms: FRAND, RAND, SEP, SSO, TTBER, IPR, ETSI; or look at some of the other nomenclature – trolls, sticky patents, patent wars, holdups, patent thickets. And the number of lawsuits and regulatory actions is ever-increasing. […]

Hill Wellford, Apr 30, 2012 Government officials, academics, and some industry participants recently have suggested that holders of so-called “standards-essential patents” (“SEPs”), meaning patents that are technically essential to the practice of technology standards, should be prohibited from seeking injunctive relief against products that infringe by implementing such standards. This prohibition would apply particularly with respect […]

Pierre Regibeau, Katharine Rockett, Apr 30, 2012 We were asked by DG Competition to provide an economic evaluation of the 2004 Technology Transfer Guidelines that would serve as an input into the formal review process initiated a few months ago. When assessing a long-standing piece of competition policy, the best approach is certainly to turn […]

Paul Lugard, Apr 30, 2012 Antitrust review of business transactions involving intellectual property has never been entirely undisputed. On the one hand, there is a general belief that antitrust intervention in R&D-, intellectual property-, and innovation-intense industries should be centered on the preservation of innovation incentives. On the other hand, day-to-day practice demonstrates that even […]

Lorenzo Coppi, Stefano Trento, Apr 30, 2012 The European Commission has recently launched a consultation on whether the rules governing intellectual property licensing should be revised after April 2014, when the current Technology Transfer Block Exemption and Guidelines will expire. The Commission has not yet put any proposal for reform on the table, choosing instead to […]

Donald Falk, Christopher Kelly, Apr 30, 2012 …The DOJ’s statement has caused some consternation, as it signals at the very least that the agency may be willing to use the merger review process to discourage-and possibly even extract concessions related to-a company’s lawful exercise of its intellectual property rights, even where the DOJ acknowledges that […]

Damien Geradin, Hee-Eun Kim, Apr 30, 2012 The Free Trade Agreement between the European Union (“EU”) and Korea has been provisionally in force since July 1, 2011, nearly four years after negotiations started in May 2007. The Agreement removes tariffs and other trade barriers in an unprecedented manner, covering virtually all products. EU exporters of […]

Apr 30, 2012 The smartphone industry today is characterized by a thicket of patents and wars based on those patents. Every day brings a new lawsuit or development between Apple, HTC, Microsoft, Motorola Mobility (“MMI”), Nokia, and Samsung. The lawsuits span numerous courts and several continents. And they often pit Apple or Microsoft on one […]

Hein Hobbelen & Tone Oeyen, Apr 30, 2012 For some time now, the concept of fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory (“FRAND”) has been a hotly debated topic in the antitrust community. Never free of what some may refer to as kafkaesk jargon, in Brussels we even have “FRAND roundtables” and “FRAND workshops.” When advising on the […]