Gallego, Beatriz Conde --- "Intellectual Property Rights and Competition Policy" [2010] ELECD 449; in Correa, M. Carlos (ed), "Research Handbook on the Protection of Intellectual Property under WTO Rules" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010)

Book Title: Research Handbook on the Protection of Intellectual Property under WTO Rules

Editor(s): Correa, M. Carlos

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781847209047

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: Intellectual Property Rights and Competition Policy

Author(s): Gallego, Beatriz Conde

Number of pages: 40

Extract:

8 Intellectual property rights and
competition policy
Beatriz Conde Gallego


1. Introduction: International trade, IPRs and competition
By conceiving the Agreement on Trade Related Aspects of Intellectual
Property Rights (TRIPS) as an integral part of the WTO trading system,
intellectual property rights (IPRs) and international trade have been
definitively linked. Whereas previous chapters of this Handbook have
dealt with different aspects of the relationship between IP protection and
international trade liberalisation,1 this chapter adds another dimension,
namely the competition dimension. In order to approach the complex
issues at the interface between international trade, IPRs and competition,
it is worth looking first at the two binomials IP protection/competition
and international trade/competition separately.

IP protection and competition It may at first sight be somehow surprising
to find competition-related elements in an international instrument which
has as its purpose the protection of IPRs. The inclusion of competition-
related rules in the TRIPS Agreement was to a certain extent a conces-
sion to the developing countries which, once it was clear that the TRIPS
Agreement would cover issues beyond counterfeiting and piracy, insisted
on having competition rules as a component of TRIPS.2 Indeed, the
request by developing countries for competition rules largely reflects their
understanding of IPRs as a danger to competition.3 Despite the negotiat-


1
See, for example, Chapter 1 of Volume II; Frankel, Susy (2010), `The appli-
cability of GATT jurisprudence to the interpretation of the TRIPS Agreement',
in Correa, Carlos M. (ed.), Research Handbook on ...