Workshop "Patent aggregation and its impact on competition and innovation policy”

On the 25th of November 2014, Prof. Lutz Maicher will take part as an expert for patents in the workshop "Patent aggregation and its impact on competition and innovation policy” held by the European Patent Office (EPO).

The workshop takes place at the European Patent Office in Munich. It gives experts in the field as well as patent aggregators and intermediaries an opportunity to present and exchange their views and experiences with each other as well as with the members of the EPO-Economic and Scientific Advisory Board. 

The main topic chosen for the 2014 work programme is: "patent aggergation and its impacts on competition and innovation policy". Under this title, experts will discuss the interplay between patent and competition policy. The main point of discussion here is the question whether there is an "inherent conflict" between the nature of patents, which create market power by allowing to exclude competitors, and the competition policy which seeks to fight market power. Another focus of the workshop will be the emergence of patent aggregation in various forms and shapes in Europe. The main focus here will be to assess the changes in European companies which nowadays  acquire more patents using technologies they did not invent themselves, giving rise to new players who concentrate on "patent aggregation". Ultimatively, the goal of this workshop is to assess the impact of patent aggregation on the way firms adopt their business models and eventually in the impact on patent and competition policy.

On the basis of the workshop discussions as well as the written replies which had to be handed in by the experts ahead of the workshop, ESAB will issue its statement on patent aggregation and its impact on competition and innovation policy, which will serve as advice to the EPO.

For more information, please see hereExternal link.

News from: 22.10.2014 16:32