Intellectual Property Right Holders and Dominance

Feb 27, 2015

When people are celebrating the lunar Chinese New Year, we are delighted to present the first article of the Year of the Sheep.

CPI Asia Column edited by Vanessa Zhang (Global Economics Group) presents:

Intellectual Property Right Holders and Dominance – Susan Ning¹, Yang Yang and Sarah Eder

Introduction

More than six years have passed since China’s Anti-monopoly Law (“AML”) came into effect on 1st August 2008. In that time, significant changes have taken place in the legislation and enforcement of the AML, which have achieved both domestic and international recognition. Technology has been drawing particular attention from the Chinese antitrust agencies recently, particularly in relation to abuse of dominance by intellectual property right (“IPR”) holders, the Qualcomm case being the latest example. The analysis of abuse of dominance in the context of IPR requires some special considerations, in particular in relation to the definition of the relevant market and establishing dominance. As one of the first firms, which took part in the drafting of the AML and provided anti-monopoly related services, we are fortunate to have witnessed the trend of expanding technology industries and have gained many valuable observations in our practice.

This article reviews the current practice of the Chinese competition authorities in defining the relevant market and assessing whether an IPR holder is dominant, and makes some suggestions for improvements by refe