FTC and DoJ update antitrust guidelines
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice (DoJ) have issued an update to the Antitrust Guidelines for Licensing of Intellectual Property, modernising the 1995 guidelines.
The guidelines explain how the federal antitrust agencies evaluate licensing involving patents, copyright and trade secrets.
Edith Ramirez, FTC chairwoman, said: “Today, the commission reaffirms its commitment to an economically grounded approach to antitrust analysis of IP licensing.”
She added: “A strong IP licensing system benefits consumers and fosters competition by promoting innovation, and helping to ensure that inventors realise an appropriate return on their investment.”
The FTC and DoJ first announced the proposed update of the licensing guidelines in August 2016, when they were made available for public comment. Changes in the statutory and case law were proposed.
As announced on Friday, January 13, the update to the guidelines has now been finalised after the 45-day comment period starting in August.
Renata Hesse, assistant attorney at the DoJ, said: “Our modernised IP licensing guidelines continue to apply an effects-based analysis that puts the focus on evaluating harm to competition, not on harm to any individual competitor, and support pro-competitive IP licensing that can promote innovation.”
She added that the comments received were helpful in completing the update and, more broadly, in helping the DoJ improve its “understanding of some of today’s very complex antitrust issues that involve IP rights”.
