Competition and patent law in the pharmaceutical sector

About this book

Competition and Intellectual Property Law in the Pharmaceutical Sector' deals with the apparent contradiction between intellectual property (IP) rights (particularly patents) and competition law, with a focus on the pharmaceutical sector: in its aim to promote innovation and long-term competition, the patent system in fact provides a temporary right to exclude. The book explores the possibility of adjusting patent policies to better account for the trade-off between static and dynamic welfare and minimize the risks of anticompetitive behaviour, which happens with the misuse of patents. This book, the first to deal with this issue on a global basis, tackles the clashes of case law by Courts and antitrust enforcement by competition authorities that undermine the predictability of solutions to this problem and increase the risk of fundamental rights violations and excessive transitional costs for enterprises.