Effective from August 1st! This new regulation focuses on the key and difficult areas of antitrust issues in the field of intellectual property | intellectual property | antitrust
The reporter learned from the State Administration for Market Regulation today that in order to encourage innovation, maintain a fair competition market order in the field of intellectual property, assist in the construction of a unified national market and a strong intellectual property country, combined with the new situation, situation, and problem of anti-monopoly supervision and law enforcement in recent years, the State Administration for Market Regulation has revised and issued the "Provisions on Prohibiting the Abuse of Intellectual Property to Exclude and Restrict Competition", which will be officially implemented on August 1, 2023.
The Regulations on Prohibiting the Abuse of Intellectual Property Rights to Exclude and Restrict Competition focus on balancing intellectual property protection and maintaining a fair competition order, focusing on key and difficult issues in the field of intellectual property anti-monopoly, strengthening rule guidance, and promoting fair competition and innovative development. Compared to the "Provisions on Prohibiting the Abuse of Intellectual Property Rights to Exclude and Restrict Competition" formulated in 2015, the focus has been on the following areas for modification and improvement:
One is to expand the connotation of "abusing intellectual property rights to exclude and restrict competitive behavior". The adjustment scope includes three types of monopoly behaviors: reaching monopoly agreements through the exercise of intellectual property rights, abusing market dominance, and implementing concentration of operators that have or may have the effect of excluding or restricting competition.
The second is to improve the rules for identifying monopolistic behavior through the exercise of intellectual property rights. According to the revised Anti Monopoly Law in 2022, combined with the characteristics of intellectual property and regulatory practices, the relevant market definition, determination and presumption of market dominance, determination of monopolistic behavior, considerations for concentration review of operators, and specific types of additional restrictive conditions will be improved and refined to enhance the guidance and operability of the rules.
The third is to strengthen the regulation of typical and special monopolistic behaviors in the field of intellectual property. If relevant regulations on patent consortia are improved, it is prohibited for patent consortia entities and members of patent consortia to engage in monopolistic behavior through patent consortia; Strengthen the regulation of monopolistic behavior in the process of standard formulation and implementation, and prohibit operators with market dominance from using standard essential patents to carry out patent hijacking.
Next, the State Administration for Market Regulation will take the promulgation of the Regulations on Prohibiting the Abuse of Intellectual Property Rights to Exclude and Restrict Competition as an opportunity to coordinate the protection of intellectual property rights, anti-monopoly and other work, promote the independent and orderly flow and efficient allocation of innovative factors, and effectively maintain a fair competition market order.