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Competition Law and Intellectual Property - JURD7474

Faculty: Faculty of Law

School: Faculty of Law

Course Outline: See below

Campus: Sydney

Career: Postgraduate

Units of Credit: 6

EFTSL: 0.12500 (more info)

Indicative Contact Hours per Week: 2

Enrolment Requirements:

Prerequisite: 72 UOC of JURD courses completed, including at least one Trade Practices or Intellectual Property course (any of JURD7522, JURD7617, JURD7621, JURD7321, JURD7350, JURD7357, JURD7446, JURD7448, JURD7603).

Excluded: LAWS8074

CSS Contribution Charge: 3 (more info)

Tuition Fee: See Tuition Fee Schedule

Further Information: See Class Timetable

View course information for previous years.

Description

This course considers the crucial interface between competition law and intellectual property and whether they are complementary or in conflict. It looks at the rationale for each and problems which exist in the relationship in a global context. Issues to be discussed will likely include misuse of intellectual property and market power; refusals to license; patent pools, tying arrangements and standard setting organisations; industry specific issues in pharmaceuticals, computer software and hardware; compulsory licensing; collecting societies. Worldwide there is no consensus on how to deal with many of these issues, which have generated intense conflict between the European Union and the United States, and China and many other countries.

Recommended Prior Knowledge

Students are expected to have completed a course in Trade Practices or Intellectual Property.

Course Objectives

A candidate who has successfully completed this course should be able to:

Understand the roles of competition law and intellectual property law against their economic background
Identify the likely complements and conflicts between competition law and various areas of intellectual property
Identify particular problem areas arising from these two areas
Understand the conflicts between the differing approaches to these problems in selected jurisdictions globally

Main Topics

Basics of competition law and economics
Basics of intellectual property law and economics
Theory: conflict or complement?
Misuse of patents to acquire or maintain market power
Specific arrangement such as patent pools; tying arrangements; standard-setting organisations and issues arising
Refusals to license by the dominant firm- comparative views
Industry specific issues: pharmaceuticals; computer software and hardware
Compulsory licensing (a) as a remedy for other antitrust violations; (b) as a response to social problems (AIDS drugs in Africa
Collecting societies

These issues and others are the focus of competition enforcement agencies worldwide. There is no consensus about how to deal with them and they have generated intense conflict between the US and EU. China has yet to refine its approach to dealing with these questions, but as it does it will no doubt become a very important part of the discussion.

Assessment

Essay plan: 20%
Essay: 70%
Class Participation: 10%

Course Texts

Prescribed

S.G. Corones, Competition Law in Australia, 2007 Thomson

Recommended

Mark l. Davison, Ann L. Monotti and Leanne Wiseman, Australian Intellectual Property 2008 Cambridge University Press

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Resources

Refer to the course outline which will be provided by the lecturer at the beginning of the relevant semester.