Use of competition rules to address abuses of intellectual property rights CARRIBEAN REGIONAL WORKSHOP ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND ACCESS TO MEDICINES, Organised by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

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Use of competition rules to address abuses of
intellectual property rightsCARRIBEAN REGIONAL
WORKSHOP ON INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY AND ACCESS TO
MEDICINES, Organised by United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP) UNAIDS in
collaboration with PAHO, CARICOM, Commonwealth
Secretariat TWN

• James Love
• 25 October 2006

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Some personal experiences in competition cases

• Alaska
• first antitrust case, involving tie-in between
  trailer park spaces and trailers during period of
  price controls on spaces
• Uses of competition rules to limit joint bidding
  on oil leases
• US Federal government
• 1996, West Publishing (remedies included
  compulsory license)
• 1997, Staples merger (Merger was stopped)
• Several other merger cases, including cases where
  limited remedies were sought
• 1997, Microsoft case (remedy was compulsory
  license)
• 2004, Abbott tie-in case involving ritonavir and
  lopinavir
• South Africa
• 2003 - Hazel Tau/TAC case (remedy was compulsory
  license)

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TRIPS/FTA rules much more liberal for cases
involving remedy to anticompetitive practices

• TRIPS
• No limitation on exports
• No requirement for prior negotiation on
  reasonable commercial terms
• The need to correct anti-competitive practices
  may be taken into account in determining the
  amount of remuneration
• Broad right to control anticompetitive practices
  in contractual licenses
• FTAs
• No use FTA limits use of competition for issuing
  compulsory licenses
• Exhaustion of rights less controversial in cases
  involving remedy to anticompetitive practices

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Some key TRIPS provisions relevant to competition
laws

• Article 6, Exhaustion
• Article 8.2, Principles
• Article 31.k, Other Use Without Authorization of
  the Right Holder
• Article 40. Control Of Anti-competitive Practices
  in Contractual Licences
• Article 44. Injunctions

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Article 6 Exhaustion

• For the purposes of dispute settlement under
  this Agreement, subject to the provisions of
  Articles 3 and 4 nothing in this Agreement shall
  be used to address the issue of the exhaustion of
  intellectual property rights.

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Article 8.2 - Principles

• 2. Appropriate measures, provided that they are
  consistent with the provisions of this Agreement,
  may be needed to prevent the abuse of
  intellectual property rights by right holders or
  the resort to practices which unreasonably
  restrain trade or adversely affect the
  international transfer of technology.

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Article 31.k - Other Use Without Authorization of
the Right Holder

• (k) Members are not obliged to apply the
  conditions set forth in subparagraphs (b) and (f)
  where such use is permitted to remedy a practice
  determined after judicial or administrative
  process to be anti-competitive. The need to
  correct anti-competitive practices may be taken
  into account in determining the amount of
  remuneration in such cases. Competent
  authorities shall have the authority to refuse
  termination of authorization if and when the
  conditions which led to such authorization are
  likely to recur

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SECTION 8 CONTROL OF ANTI-COMPETITIVE PRACTICES
IN CONTRACTUAL LICENCES

• Article 40
• 1. Members agree that some licensing practices
  or conditions pertaining to intellectual property
  rights which restrain competition may have
  adverse effects on trade and may impede the
  transfer and dissemination of technology.

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SECTION 8 CONTROL OF ANTI-COMPETITIVE PRACTICES
IN CONTRACTUAL LICENCES

• 2. Nothing in this Agreement shall prevent
  Members from specifying in their legislation
  licensing practices or conditions that may in
  particular cases constitute an abuse of
  intellectual property rights having an adverse
  effect on competition in the relevant market. As
  provided above, a Member may adopt, consistently
  with the other provisions of this Agreement,
  appropriate measures to prevent or control such
  practices, which may include for example
  exclusive grantback conditions, conditions
  preventing challenges to validity and coercive
  package licensing, in the light of the relevant
  laws and regulations of that Member.

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SECTION 8 CONTROL OF ANTI-COMPETITIVE PRACTICES
IN CONTRACTUAL LICENCES

• 3. Each Member shall enter, upon request, into
  consultations with any other Member which has
  cause to believe that an intellectual property
  right owner that is a national or domiciliary of
  the Member to which the request for consultations
  has been addressed is undertaking practices in
  violation of the requesting Member's laws and
  regulations on the subject matter of this
  Section, and which wishes to secure compliance
  with such legislation, without prejudice to any
  action under the law and to the full freedom of
  an ultimate decision of either Member. The
  Member addressed shall accord full and
  sympathetic consideration to, and shall afford
  adequate opportunity for, consultations with the
  requesting Member, and shall cooperate through
  supply of publicly available non-confidential
  information of relevance to the matter in
  question and of other information available to
  the Member, subject to domestic law and to the
  conclusion of mutually satisfactory agreements
  concerning the safeguarding of its
  confidentiality by the requesting Member.

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SECTION 8 CONTROL OF ANTI-COMPETITIVE PRACTICES
IN CONTRACTUAL LICENCES

• 4. A Member whose nationals or domiciliaries are
  subject to proceedings in another Member
  concerning alleged violation of that other
  Member's laws and regulations on the subject
  matter of this Section shall, upon request, be
  granted an opportunity for consultations by the
  other Member under the same conditions as those
  foreseen in paragraph 3.

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Article 44 - Injunctions

• 2. Notwithstanding the other provisions of this
  Part and provided that the provisions of Part II
  specifically addressing use by governments, or by
  third parties authorized by a government, without
  the authorization of the right holder are
  complied with, Members may limit the remedies
  available against such use to payment of
  remuneration in accordance with subparagraph (h)
  of Article 31. In other cases, the remedies
  under this Part shall apply or, where these
  remedies are inconsistent with a Member's law,
  declaratory judgments and adequate compensation
  shall be available.

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Examples of uses of competition rules

• Price fixing
• Remedy to enhanced monopoly power from merger
• (example, compulsory license of Anderson gene
  patent, etc)
• Monopolization of field of product development
• Illegal agreements to delay entry by generic
  competitors
• Use of fraud to game patent/linkage system
• Illegal restrictions on parallel trade
• Excessive pricing
• Theory used in RSA case focused on affordability
  of essential intellectual property goods
• Denial of access to Essential Facility (relevant
  where multiple inventions needed for product,
  such as co-formulated drug, diagnostic device,
  etc)
• (More on next page)

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Examples of uses of competition rules

• Refusal to license
• If law requires offer of reason terms, what are
  they? Royalty guidelines can be helpful
• EU mandatory compulsory patent license for plant
  breeders
• Refusal to license patents in cases involving
  essential goods
• GSK and BI refusals to license to MSF or CIPLA
• Roche 2000 request for compulsory license of
  Chiron patents
• US has threatened use of Bayh-Dole act compulsory
  licensing provisions in cases involving patents
  on stem cells and for reverse genetics
  technologies needed for avian flu vaccine

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Strategy for using competition approach to remedy
anticompetitive practices

• Do not require judicial findings of
  anticompetitive practices.
• Give administrative agency/official right to
  issues compulsory licenses.
• Health or pharmaceutical procurement officials?
• Make the grounds and procedures simple and easy
  to understand
• Some good examples in TWN book. We can provide
  others.
• Consider making grant of license mandatory if
  certain conditions obtain.
• Mandatory licenses will attract less bilateral
  pressure when disputes arise.

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Example of possible refusal to license grounds

• Considering Articles 31.k and 40 of the TRIPS,
  and Paragraphs 4 and 5(b) of the Doha
  Declaration, the Minister of Health shall grant a
  compulsory license to a patent if
• i. The refusal to license the patent will impede
  the transfer and dissemination of technology that
  is essential for promoting access to medicine for
  all, or
• ii. The patent owner refused to license to
  patent on reasonable terms, such as the guideless
  under the WHO/UNDP Tiered Royalty Method, or
• iii. The patent is essential for the import,
  manufacture or sale of a medicine or medical
  technology that is placed on the market at an
  excessive price, defined as
• (a) a price that is not affordable for most of
  the population
• (b) a price higher than charged in reference
  markets or
• (b) a price that is higher than the price
  charged in countries defined as high income by
  the World Bank, adjusted for differences in
  relative per capita income.