1 Intellectual Property Protection and the Antitrust Laws
1.0 These Guidelines state the antitrust enforcement policy of the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission (individually, “the Agency,” and collectively, “the Agencies”) with respect to the licensing of intellectual property protected by patent, copyright, and trade secret law, and of know-how.[1] By stating their general policy, the Agencies hope to assist those who need to predict whether the Agencies will challenge a practice as anticompetitive. However, these Guidelines cannot remove judgment and discretion in antitrust law enforcement. The Agencies will evaluate each case in light of its own facts and apply these Guidelines reasonably and flexibly.[2]
In the United States, patents confer rights to exclude others from making, using, or selling in the United States the invention claimed by the patent for a set period of time.[3] To gain patent protection, an invention (which may be a product, process, machine, or composition of matter) must be novel,[4] nonobvious,[5] useful,[6] and sufficiently disclosed.[7] Copyright protection applies to original works of authorship fixed in a tangible medium of expression.[8] Copyright protection applies only to the expression, not the underlying ideas.[9] Unlike a patent, which protects an invention not only from copying but also from subsequent independent creation by others, a
- ↑ These Guidelines replace the “Antitrust Guidelines for the Licensing of Intellectual Property” issued on April 6, 1995, by the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. They do not cover the antitrust treatment of trademarks. Although the same general antitrust principles that apply to other forms of intellectual property apply to trademarks as well, these Guidelines deal with technology transfer and innovation-related issues that typically arise with respect to patents, copyrights, trade secrets, and know-how agreements, rather than with product-differentiation issues that typically arise with respect to trademarks.
- ↑ As is the case with all guidelines, users should rely on qualified counsel to assist them in evaluating the antitrust risk associated with any contemplated transaction or activity. No set of guidelines can possibly indicate how the Agencies will assess the particular facts of every case. Parties who wish to know the Agencies’ specific enforcement intentions with respect to any particular transaction in which they are involved should consider seeking a Department of Justice business review letter pursuant to 28 C.F.R. § 50.6 or a Federal Trade Commission Advisory Opinion pursuant to 16 C.F.R. §§ 1.1-1.4.
- ↑ See, e.g., 35 U.S.C. § 154(a)(2), (c)(1) (2012); id. § 173.
- ↑ See id. § 102.
- ↑ See id. § 103.
- ↑ See id. § 101.
- ↑ See id. § 112.
- ↑ See 17 U.S.C. § 102 (2012). Copyright protection lasts for a set period of time. See id. § 302(a), (c). The principles stated in these Guidelines also apply to protection of mask works fixed in a semiconductor chip product (see id. §§ 901-914), which is analogous to copyright protection for works of authorship.
- ↑ See id. § 102(b). Copyright protection extends to literary works, musical works, dramatic works, pantomimes and choreographic works, pictorial, graphic and sculptural works, motion pictures and other audiovisual works, sound recordings, and architectural works. Id. § 102(a).
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