The Development And Application Of Essentialfacilities Doctrine In The U.S. And The Enlightment To China

The essential facilities doctrine is a basic principle against refusing to trade in the modern Antitrust law.It was developed by the United States Supreme Court more than a century ago on the basis of Article 2 of the Sherman Act,to prevent the abuse of dominant position by operators in the possession of specific facilities and to impede a fair competitive order in the market.The traditional essential facilities doctrine was mostly applicable to physical facilities such as railways and pipelines.However,with the advancement of science and technology and the development of society,scholars have also begun to explore the feasibility of applying the necessary facilities principles to intellectual property.China is in a critical period of economic transformation,so developing intellectual property rights in order to participate in market competition,promote economic growth plays a key role.However,under the Antitrust law,protection and development of intellectual property rights also require a balance between competition policy and intellectual property policy to maximize the welfare of consumers and prevent the abuse of intellectual property rights behavior.On the basis of the historical experiences of western countries,China holds an acceptable attitude and have adopted the principles of essential facilities doctrine.At the level of laws and regulations,we have already introduced this doctrine to china,but from the implementation perspective,this principle hasn't been tested.Therefore,this paper attempts to sort out the main cases in American and then generalize the general principles of US essential facilities doctrine and its applicability in the field of intellectual property,in the purpose of providing some new perspectives and ideas for our more effective use of necessary facilities rules.