Intellectual Property Protection Under The Competition Law Perspective

There is no denying the fact that everybody can perceive and enjoy the great progresses and conveniences brought by New Technological Revolution. However, there are the two totally different circumstances between the developed countries and the developing countries: on the one hand, modern technology is rapidly changing it's face day by day and many of the developed countries and multinational corporations suddenly get rich, on the other hand, most of the developing countries increasingly depend on western advanced science and technology to modernize their national economy, which offered and controlled by the developed countries, and gradually become energy resources providers, industrial bases of transferring manufacture pollution, and new markets for their products. This result may be attributed to several factors, but the application of intellectual property strategy by the developed countries and multinational corporations is the most critical one, in which includes the application of technology standardization strategy. Since China DVD manufacturers were exposed to technical barriers hidden by some foreign enterprises by means of Patent Pool Arrangements in 2001, a majority of China corporations have deeply painful memories of technological standardization. There are plenty of examples can account for this, such as "lighters made in Wenzhou", "packaging wood exported to America", and "tea imported by the European Community", etc. It is not accidental but inevitable for China enterprises to encounter these series of technological barriers, because these technological barriers are one kind of commercial strategies designed by the developed countries andmultinational corporations, in order to expand and manipulate international markets. A large number of technological barriers are at work in the international trade as legal technological standards, in which embed the regulations of intellectual property. It will be a significant issue for China that how to counterattack the manipulation of the developed countries by the means of technology standardization strategy, concerning the safety of national economy and technology development.The intellectual property laws provide incentives for innovation, promoting innovation and enhancing consumer welfare. The aim of technology standardization is to improve the social benefits of products, to economize the cost of trade and eliminate technical barriers among countries, and to assure compatibility among new product interfaces. However, technology standardization strategy combined with intellectual property rules and technical regulations becomes a manipulated tool of the developed countries to control the development of economy and culture in the developing countries. Can we change this function of technology standardization strategy by formulating new rules, so that more developing countries and people can share the social welfare brought by protecting the intellectual property, not weaken the poor countries and enhancing the rich countries. That is the problem that this thesis attempts to solve. The author thinks that we should restrict the monopolization based upon the technology standardization strategy in the market to the reasonable extent by drawing up the antitrust laws, and seek the new institution and methods to mitigate and extricate the manipulation from those richer countries and business tycoons.This thesis has been divided into five comparative parts to analyze, expound and proof the aforementioned contemplations.Part one: analyzing the research background.With the rise of knowledge economy and the emergence of economy globalization tide, the technology standardization strategy becomes the newer and more powerful competitive weapon.Part two: analyzing the nature of the technology standardization strategy.Analyzing its nature from three main approaches or aspects - the function of technical standards, the relationship between the technical standards and the intellectual property, and the interplay of the technical standards and the market competition rules. The author believes that the technology standardization strategy is a powerful implement to realize monopolization and exclude competition, which applied by the stronger in the global market.Part three: Analyzing the effect of two regulations in the technology standardization strategy, the intellectual property laws and the antitrust laws.The author deems that the standard antitrust analysis should apply to the licensing arrangements of intellectual property embed the technology standardization strategy. Only in this way, the effective competition order in the market can be maintained, promoting innovation and consumer welfare.Part four: Discussing the construct of the technology standardization strategy in China under the competition laws.The author started from the relationship between WTO/TBT Agreement and China, and then focusing the conformity and protectionfunctions of the competition laws, and finally put forward the specific proposals.Part five: Conclusion.Keeping the balance between the "rivalrousness" of competition behavior and the "monopolization" of intellectual property under the antitrust laws , is not only the bottom line of protecting intellectual property from the viewpoint of competition, but also the best approach for China to handle the Technology Standardization Strategy from the developed countries and multinational corporations.The following research methods will be taken in this thesis:1. Comparative method;2. Historical analysis method;3. Economic analysis method;4. Sociological analysis method; and5. Concrete case analysis method, and so on.