Assessment of Potential Anticompetitive Conduct in the Field of Intellectual Property Rights and Assessment of the Interplay Between Competition Policy and IPR Protection

The interface between competition policy and intellectual property rights is of growing importance. A main aspect of this interface, addressed in the Technology Transfer Guidelines, is the type of licensing agreements that might have significant anti-competitive effects. This report provides an economic analysis of such agreements, focussing on cross-licensing, patent pools, grant-backs, pass-throughs and the use of licensing and IPR divestment as merger remedies