Refusal to License Intellectual Property Rights Under Article 82 EC in Light of Standardization Context

Abstract:     
This paper examines whether the current EU competition law regarding refusal to license intellectual property rights can effectively deal with access to industry common standards that may embrace proprietary intellectual property rights. It finds even though intellectual property rights as such do not confer dominant position to their owners in the market, industry standards that embrace technologies covered by IPRs may add substantial value to these IPRs. The combination of industry standards and IPRs may create a dominant position in the market. The paper suggests that the approach based on the complementary interaction between intellectual property law and competition law be introduced to address the refusal to license IPRs problems in terms of industry standards, especially the over-exploiting intellectual property should be taken into account when to determine the existence of abuse of dominant position.

Keywords: Refusal to License, Intellectual Property, Competition Law, Antitrust, Abuse of Dominant Position, Standardization

JEL Classification: K11, K21

Accepted Paper Series