Competition Law and Intellectual Property

This course satisfies either the Perspective or the International/Comparative/Transnational course requirement.

This course explores the interface between intellectual property laws and competition law and the various ways in which those laws interface, conflict, and complement each other. We will examine the tension between those laws through the study of various cases from the United States, Canada, and other jurisdictions from the early 20th century to contemporary disputes.

Examples of issues that might be discussed include: whether and when IP rights should be regarded as 'monopolies'; price discrimination; tying and other restrictive terms in IP licenses; refusal to license IP; compulsory licenses; collective administration of copyright; patent pools and standard setting; anticompetitive IP settlements; parallel importation; competition law in high-tech industries; and IP misuse. The first meetings will be dedicated to introducing basic concepts, while in the rest students will be required to present topics of their choice.

The course is designed primarily for: (1) students interested in intellectual property law who want to understand how competition law may affect the acquisition, exercise, and enforcement of intellectual property rights, or (2) students with interest in competition law who want to understand its operation in the context of intellectual property rights.