Competition Policy and Intellectual Property in Today's Global Economy


Book Description

The fast-evolving relationship between the promotion of welfare-enhancing competition and the balanced protection of intellectual property (IP) rights has attracted the attention of policymakers, analysts and scholars. This interest is inevitable in an environment that lays ever greater emphasis on the management of knowledge and innovation and on mechanisms to ensure that the public derives the expected social and economic benefits from this innovation and the spread of knowledge. This book looks at the positive linkage between IP and competition in jurisdictions around the world, surveying developments and policy issues from an international and comparative perspective. It includes analysis of key doctrinal and policy issues by leading academics and practitioners from around the globe and a cutting-edge survey of related developments across both developed and developing economies. It also situates current policy developments at the national level in the context of multilateral developments, at WIPO, WTO and elsewhere.




Competition Policy in the World Trade Organization


Book Description

Diploma Thesis from the year 2006 in the subject Law - European and International Law, Intellectual Properties, grade: 1,00, University of Salzburg (Völkerrecht), language: English, abstract: Die vorliegende Diplomarbeit behandelt das Problem der Regelung von Wettbewerbsfragen im Völkerrecht im allgemeinen und in der WTO im besonderen. In Kapitel 1 werden die wirtschaftlichen Hintergründe und unterschiedlichen Motive für staatliche wettbewerbsrechtliche Regelungen dargestellt. Kapitel 2 stellt verschiedene Tatbestände, die im Wettbewerbsrecht als regelungsbedürftig angesehen werden, vor (z.B. Kartelle, Missbrauch der marktbeherrschenden Stellung, etc.). Kapitel 3 beschreibt nationale Regelungsansätze des Wettbewerbsrechtes einschließlich bilateraler Kooperationsabkommen, die zur Durchsetzung nationaler Regelungen erforderlich sind. Besonderes Augenmerk wird auch auf die unterschiedlichen Rechtskulturen gelegt, die die nationalen Regelungen beeinflussen. Kapitel 4 stellt die bisherigen Regelungsansätze auf internationaler Ebene dar, wobei die auf regionaler Ebene verbindliches Recht darstellen, die auf universeller Ebene allerdings im Bereich des soft laws bleiben. Kapitel 5 und 6 stellen die Kernkapitel der Arbeit dar und befassen sich mit Wettbewerbsrecht im Rahmen der WTO. In Kapitel 5 werden bestehende wettbewernsrelevante Regelungen in der WTO dargestellt. Zunächst wird beschrieben, welche staatlichen Maßnahmen, die von der WTO Rechtsordnung erfasst sind, den Wettbewerb beeinflussen. In einem weiteren Schritt wird analysiert, welche WTO Regelungen Staaten verpflichten könnten, privates wettbewerbswidriges Handeln zu regulieren. Da die Regelungen der WTO grundsätzlich Verpflichtungen für Staaten enthalten, wettbewerbsrelevantes Verhalten aber von Unternehmen gesetzt werden, ist es notwendig, einen Zusammenhang zwischen dem Verhalten von Privaten und den staatlichen Verpflichtungen aus dem WTO Recht darzustellen. In Kapitel 6 wird schließlich die Diskussionen in




Economic Development, Competition Policy, and the World Trade Organization


Book Description

At the recent World Trade Organization (WTO) ministerial meeting in Doha, Qatar, WTO members called for the launch of negotiations on disciplines relating to competition based on explicit consensus on modalities to be agreed at the fifth WTO ministerial meeting in 2003. WTO discussions since 1997 have revealed little support for ambitious multilateral action. Proponents of the WTO antitrust disciplines currently propose an agreement that is limited to "core principles"-nondiscrimination, transparency, and provisions banning "hard core" cartels. The authors argue that an agreement along such lines will create compliance costs for developing countries without addressing the anticompetitive behavior of firms located in foreign jurisdictions. To be unambiguously beneficial to low-income countries, any WTO antitrust disciplines should recognize the capacity constraints that prevail in these economies, make illegal collusive business practices by firms with international operations that raise prices in developing country markets, and require competition authorities in high-income countries to take action against firms located in their jurisdictions to defend the interests of affected developing country consumers. More generally, a case is made that traditional liberalization commitments using existing WTO fora will be the most effective means of lowering prices and increasing access to an expanded variety of goods and services.




Competition Policy, Developing Countries and the WTO


Book Description

Developing countries have a great interest in pursuing active domestic competition policy but should do so independent of the World Trade Organization -- which they should use to improve market access through further reduction in direct barriers to trade in goods and services.




Competition Policy and Intellectual Property in Today's Global Economy


Book Description

The fast-evolving relationship between the promotion of welfare-enhancing competition and the balanced protection of intellectual property (IP) rights has attracted the attention of policymakers, analysts and scholars. This interest is inevitable in an environment that lays ever greater emphasis on the management of knowledge and innovation and on mechanisms to ensure that the public derives the expected social and economic benefits from this innovation and the spread of knowledge. This book looks at the positive linkage between IP and competition in jurisdictions around the world, surveying developments and policy issues from an international and comparative perspective. It includes analysis of key doctrinal and policy issues by leading academics and practitioners from around the globe and a cutting-edge survey of related developments across both developed and developing economies. It also situates current policy developments at the national level in the context of multilateral developments, at WIPO, WTO and elsewhere.







Global Competition Policy


Book Description

There is growing consensus among international trade negotiators and policymakers that a prime area for future multilateral discussion is competition policy. Competition policy includes antitrust policy (including merger regulation and control) but is often extended to include international trade measures and other policies that affect the structure, conduct, and performance of individual industries. This study includes country studies of competition policy in Western Europe, North America, and the Far East (with a focus on Japan) in the light of increasingly globalized activities of business firms. Areas where there are major differences in philosophy, policy, or practice are identified, with emphasis on those differences that could lead to economic costs and international friction. Alternatives for eliminating these costs and frictions are discussed, including unilateral policy changes, bilateral or multilateral harmonization of policies, and creation of new international regimes to supplement or replace national or regional regimes.




Competition Policy in East Asia


Book Description

This edited collection draws together papers on competition policy that were presented at the twenty-eighth conference of the Pacific Area Forum on Trade and Development (PAFTAD), held in Manila on 16th to 18th September 2002.




A Competition Policy for the WTO


Book Description

The book analyse the market implications of the proposals to impose trade rules on competition law enforcement, and pro-competitive regulation on sectors directly, particularly in telecoms and distribution services. To prevent business practices from restricting trade, governments are considering how best to develop a global framework of competition rules. Formal proposals have been made for Members of the World Trade Organisation to undertake binding commitments to ban cartels, co-operate in international law enforcement and enforce their competition laws in a non-discriminatory manner. Philip Marsden recommends that the discussion and negotiation of competition rules at the WTO focus on the problem that is most relevant to the interaction of trade and competition policy. This is the frequent allegation that competition Authorities are tolerating exclusive business arrangements that appear to exclude competitors, and foreign competitors in particular. This allegation was at the heart of the Kodak/Fuji Film trade case about access to the Japanese market, and also underlies a continuing difference of view among trade and competition Authorities ; particularly on either side of the Atlantic ; about how successful companies should be allowed to be. The Author analyses these differences through a colourful and insightful examination of how the European Commission and the American antitrust Authorities reviewed the Boeing/McDonnell Douglas and GE/ Honeywell mergers.




Trade and Competition Policies Exploring the Ways Forward


Book Description

In the run-up to the November 1999 WTO Ministerial in Seattle, this conference proceedings explored the various options towards better coherence between trade and competition policies.