[Ip-health] March 20, 2007: EC Competition Policy on Patent Pools hosted in Brussels.

[James Love]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Mark Popofsky
Date: February 22, 2007 8:51:12 AM EST
To: AT-IP@MAIL.ABANET.ORG
Subject: [AT-IP] March 20, 2007 BBL (12:00 EST) on EC Competition
Policy on Patent Pools hosted in Brussels.

The IP Committee is going "Over There."  See below & attached
announcement
of this upcoming program:



                     The Intellectual Property Committee
                      of the American Bar Association=92s
                          Section of Antitrust Law

                                   Presents
                              A Brown Bag Lunch

                               March 20, 2007
                         12:00 noon to 1:30 p.m. EST

                 The EC Competition Policy on Patent Pools =96
                Has the Commission Struck the Right Balance?

U.S. antitrust lawyers may not be aware that a sizable section of the
European Commission=92s 2004 Article 81 Guidelines on technology
transfers is
devoted to patent pools.   These Guidelines address such important
issues
as whether licensors operating in the downstream market should be
forced to
pay royalties, whether the failure of patent pools to remove non-
essential
patents from licenses could be a form of =93collective bundling,=94 and
whether
ex ante licensing discussions may be fruitful and pro-competitive
means of
ensuring that licensees are licensed on reasonable and non-
discriminatory
terms.   Under Article 82, the Commission historically has intervened to
secure lower royalty rates and access fees, to address margin squeezes.
The issues become still more interesting when de facto standards are
involved.   For example, how far should the Commission go in forcing
patent
pools to unbundle non-essential patents?  Does the Commission infer a
dominant position from the mere ownership of an essential patent, and if
so, what consequences should be drawn from this with regard to patent
pools?   Can patent pools rightfully terminate a license in the event
of a
legal challenge to licensed patents?

In this program, the panel will debate the Commission=92s policy on patent
pools and its enforcement record, and will explore whether the
Commission
has struck the right balance between the rights of IP owners and those
seeking access to de facto industry standards.


MODERATOR:        Frank Fine, EC Competition Law Advocates, Brussels

SPEAKERS:         Paul Lugard, Vice President and Senior Counsel,
Philips
                   International B.V., Eindhoven, Netherlands

                   Jos=E9 Rivas, Co-Head, European Competition Group,
                   McDermott, Will & Emery, Brussels

                   Marleen Van Kerckhove, Head of European Competition
                   Practice,  Arnold & Porter, Brussels

LOCATION:         Host site at McDermott Will & Emery, rue P=E8re Eudore
                   Devroye 245, 1150 Brussels, Belgium   Call-in numbers
                   will be available as set forth below.

If you would like to participate either by phone or in-person, please
RSVP
with Fabienne Barbion (32)(02) 517-6600 or fabienne_barbion@aporter.com.
Capacity on-site is limited and, therefore, on-site participation
will be
available on a first-come, first-served basis.   For those
participating by
phone, the dial-in number will be e-mailed to you three days before the
program.  Also, a recording of the program will be available in MP3
format
and accessible at http://www.abanet.org/antitrust/at-bb/bb-
audio.shtml. If
you have any questions, please contact Diane Odom at (312) 988-5702 (
odomd@staff.abanet.org).


---------------------------------
James Packard Love
Knowledge Ecology International
mailto:james.love@keionline.org
tel. +1.202.332.2670 / mobile+1.202.361.3040

"If everyone thinks the same: No one thinks."  Bill Walton"