Study On The Intellectual Property Tying And Regulation Of Anti-monopoly Law

Exercising intellectual property rights in a right method is not subject to adjustment of the anti-monopoly law. But when abuse of intellectual property rights rules out some effects that restrict competition, it should be regulated by anti-monopoly Law. Tying arrangement is very common in marketing strategy.However,if a market player who has dominant position in a market abuses this position to implement a tying arrangement without good reason, it was prohibited by anti-trust law. Tying arrangements is also a kind of IP misuse.If a market player who has much market power compel his customer to accept some goods that he doesn't want to buy, or some unreasonable conditions when licenses IP, it constitutes the IP tying arrangement that should be regulated by anti-monopoly Law.Microsoft had been investigated by anti-monopoly authorities in USA and EU respectively due to its bundling arrangement in selling windows OS bundled by IE and Media Player.This was a typical anti-monopoly case involved IP tying arrangement,which shows prominent conflicts between IP and anti-monopoly law and catches everyone's eyes in the world especially in present days when knowledge economy booting rapidly. This page try to learn IP tying arrangement more clearly through analysis based on theory of tying in anti-monopoly law and economics,and cases.This page includes 4 chapters as follows:In chapter 1,this page.apply general tying theory in anti-monopoly to IP tying to gain a clearly recognition about it. IP tying elements include:two or more independent products;has a dominant position in a relevant market;forced factor;damage to the competition of a market. In possession of IP is a heavy proof of having dominant position, but theses two are not necessarily linked.It should apply the rule of reason to analyze IP tying to decide to apply anti-monopoly law to regulate it or not.In chapter 2, after analyzing 4 cases about two kinds of technological ties, the author finds that the technological ties have some new characteristics such as easy to do, more hidden to see, having more positive effects,these give a big challenge to execution of anti-monopoly in technical and balance between IP protection and anti-monopoly law.In chapter 3,introduce some arrangements and experiences in USA and EU in the area of IP tying regulation.In chapter 4, the author gives some suggestions on how to refine the regulation on IP tying after taking a overlook at conditions in this area in our country, as follows:firstly, learning from the other countries advanced experiences actively according to situations in China;secondly, adding IP misuse system in IP law and refining articles on tying in Anti-Unfair Competition Law to regulate IP tying that do not need to apply anti-monopoly law to adjust;finally, pushing forward anti-monopoly regulation on IP tying by perfecting the tying articles, adding exemption system, issuing special regulations on anti-monopoly in the field of intellectual property, refining the legal responsibility and execution system in Anti-monopoly Law. In this way,our country may establish a multi-level regulation system on IP tying.