Competition Law and Patents

In June 2005 the European Commission announced that it had fined AstraZeneca €60 million for misusing the patent system to delay entry of competitors thereby abusing its dominant position in contravention of Art. 82 EC. In October 2005 a complaint by six phone manufacturers was reported against Qualcomm, a chip manufacturer that owns patents over technology used in 3G handsets, alleging that Qualcomm refused to license essential patents on fair terms, and charged excessive royalties for its essential patents thereby acting anti-competitively. In December 2005 the Commission published a Discussion Paper on the Application of Art. 82 to Exclusionary Abuses. In February 2007 the Commission opened an investigation into Boehringer’s best selling drug last year, Spiriva, in relation to possible misuses of the patent system to exclude competition from the market.

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