ANTITRUST AGENCIES SEEK VIEWS ON PROPOSED INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY (IP) GUIDELINES : A PRIMER

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 Essentially, the new proposed FTC and DOJ Antirust Guidelines for Licensing of Intellectual Property re-enforce the two Federal agencies' (1) 1995 Antitrust Guidelines for the Licensing of Intellectual Property ("the IP Licensing Guidelines") and (2) the 2007 joint -report, titled Antitrust Enforcement and Intellectual Property Rights, Promoting Innovation and Competition ("the Antitrust IP Report").

In sum, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice Antitrust Division's (DOJ's)  views are that the IP Licensing Guidelines "remain soundly grounded" as a matter of antitrust law and economics in three basic principles:

A. The FTC and DOJ apply the same antitrust analysis to conduct involving intellectual property
      as to conduct involving other forms of property, taking into account the specific characteristics of a particular property right.

B.  The agencies do not presume that intellectual property creates market power.

c. The two agencies recognize that intellectual property licensing allows firms to combine complementary factors of production and is generally pro-competitive.