The Federal Antitrust Guidelines for the Licensing of Intellectual Property

This is the second edition of the Antitrust Section's handbook on the Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission's Antitrust Guidelines for the Licensing of Intellectual Property. Like its predecessor, this volume provides a description of the enforcement agencies' antitrust policy with respect to the licensing of patents, copyrights, trade secrets, and know-how. It also is updated to reflect the pertinent developments since the agencies issued their Guidelines seven years ago. Since 1995, the agencies have initiated a wide variety of enforcement actions involving intellectual property and have pursued claims ranging from alleged price fixing among patent holders to allegedly anticompetitive settlements of infringement litigation. This book discusses these enforcement actions and the recent judicial decisions in this area and also provides some historical perspective on the agencies' current policy with respect to the licensing of intellectual property. The book includes the complete text of the 1995 Department of Justice and Federal Trade Commission Antitrust Guidelines for the Licensing of Intellectual Property.