Press Release: Competition policy: Commission opens debate on block exemption for licensing agreements

The European Commission adopted a report on 7 January 2002 to evaluate the functioning of Regulation n° 240/96, which sets out the competition rules for the application of Article 81 to technology transfer agreements. This is an important policy area as the economic development of the Community and its ability to draw abreast of its competitors in the rest of the world depends on the capacity of industry to devise new technologies and to disseminate them at a large scale. Competition is one of the main driving forces of innovation and it is therefore important to find the right balance between protecting competition and protecting intellectual property rights

http://ec.europa.eu/competition/antitrust/legislation/transfer.html http://ec.europa.eu/competition/antitrust/legislation/transfer.html

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