Do you licence technology or manufacture and distribute under licence within the European Economic Area (“EEA”)?
If so, you should know about the proposed revisions to the existing Technology Transfer Block Exemption (TTBE) published by the European Commission on 1 October 2003. Why should you care about the TTBE? Because the TTBE provides a safe harbour from certain elements of European competition law (antitrust law for US readers), and EU competition law almost certainly applies to your company’s activities in Europe where there is an affect on trade between Member States of the EEA. More specifically, EU competition law applies to activities and agreements with the potential to have a significant impact on competition within the EEA. To the surprise of many owners of intellectual property rights, the “ordinary” exercise and protection of one’s intellectual property rights frequently can violate EU competition law. Why are licences of technology often caught by EU competition law? A key objective of EU competition law is to ensure that there are no internal barriers to trade between Member Sta
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