European Competition Law Annual 2005: The Interaction Between Competition Law And Intellectual Property Law

This is the tenth volume in the highly topical series based on the annual workshops on EU Competition Law and Policy held at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute in Florence. The volume reproduces materials of the roundtable debate, which examined the interaction between competition law and intellectual property law.

The workshop participants - a group of senior representatives of the Commission and the national competition authorities of some EC Member States, renowned international academics, and expert legal practitioners - discussed the economic and legal issues that arise in this particular area of application of EC competition rules, including such topics as: -- whether the characteristics of intellectual property products/markets justify special treatment under the competition rules -- the critical assessment of the Block Exemption Regulation and corresponding Guidelines recently adopted in this area of EC competition law enforcement -- the enforcement issues that arise in relation to patent pools and collecting societies -- the specific problems related to intellectual property in the domains of merger control and application of Article 82 EC