Comments of the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law on the Draft Commission Block Exemption Regulation on Research and Development Agreements and the Draft Guidelines on Horizontal Cooperation Agreements

The paper represents the comments of the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law on the Draft Commission Regulation on the application of Art. 101(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to categories of research and development agreements and the Daft Guidelines on horizontal cooperation agreements. Given the particular expertise of the Institute both on intellectual property law and competition law, the comments focus on the Draft Research and Development (R&D) Block Exemption Regulation and Chapter 7 of the Draft Horizontal Guidelines dealing with standardisation agreements. The Institute does not comment on the Draft Block Exemption Regulation on Specialisation Agreements.The Institute is in support of the general approach of the Commission to revise the existing system. In particular, the Institute welcomes the clearer distinction between competition in the product market, the market for technology and finally competition for innovation. Yet, the following comments will concentrate on points where the Institute thinks that the current text may be improved. It is also held that clearer rules on how to deal with competition problems related to technological standards would be highly desirable. In this regard, the Institute is of the opinion that Chapter 7 of the Draft Horizontal Guidelines does not adequately respond to the challenges presented by technological standards