On (un)enforceability of restrictive clauses in patent licence agreement

Abstract

License Agreement represents a legal institute which performs the constitutive transport of industrial property rights or an instrument that allows the connection of subjects that create intellectual resources with those that have technical and economic means for their exploitation. Licensing of new, protected inventions and their exploitation contribute undoubtedly to the overall social development. The right to a patent guarantees its titular, for a certain period of time, the monopoly right to its exploitation, so that his titular right can be transferred to other persons under much more restrictive conditions than is usual for the transfer of other rights. A superior position of a licensor allows him to put the license acquirer in a more dependent position by entering different restrictive clauses that affect the freedom of economy and competitiveness at the licensee market into concerned License Agreement. Due to violation of free competition in the market certain restrictive clauses in Patent License Agreements are considered to be unenforceable from the standpoint of Competition law and, for the need of Legal certainty, they have to be suppressed at both national and international level.

Keywords

• license agreement
• patent
• competition law
• restrictive clauses
• legal security