Keywords
Summary

Keywords

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1.Competition - Agreements, decisions and concerted practices - Industrial and commercial property rights - Patent - Exercise of rights - Permissible in principle

( EEC Treaty, Art . 85(1 ) )

2 . Competition - Agreements, decisions and concerted practices - Industrial and commercial property rights - Patent licensing agreement - Obligation to continue to pay a royalty after expiry of the patent - Permissible in principle

( EEC Treaty, Art . 85(1 ) )

3.Competition - Agreements, decisions and concerted practices - Industrial and commercial property rights - Patent licensing agreement - Prohibition on manufacture and marketing after expiry of the patent and termination of the agreement - Unlawfulness - Condition - Appreciable effect on trade between Member States

( EEC Treaty, Art . 85(1 ) )

Summary

1.Restrictions which are imposed by way of contract by the proprietor of a patent upon the reproduction, use or exploitation of a patented invention otherwise than under a licence granted for that purpose and which derive from the application of national legislation intended to protect industrial property rights cannot, in themselves, be regarded as preventing, restricting or distorting competition within the common market within the meaning of Article 85(1 ).

2.A contractual obligation under which the grantee of a licence for a patented invention is required to pay royalty for an indeterminate period, and thus after the expiry of the patent, does not in itself constitute a restriction of competition within the meaning of Article 85(1 ) of the Treaty where the agreement was entered into after the patent application was submitted and immediately before the grant of the patent .

3.A clause contained in a licensing agreement prohibiting the manufacture and marketing of the products in question after the expiry of the patent and the termination of the agreement comes within the prohibition laid down in Article 85(1 ) only if it emerges from the economic and legal context in which the agreement was concluded that it is liable to appreciably affect trade between Member States .