The IP Guidelines: Lessons from History

By Willard K. Tom

In the fierce debates over the proper relationship between antitrust and intellectual property, some of the hard-won underlying principles of the 1995 Antitrust Guidelines for the Licensing of Intellectual Property risks being forgotten. Of particular importance are: (1) the implications of applying the rule of reason, (2) the distinction between horizontal and vertical relationships, and (3) the importance of maintaining the incentive for licensing and therefore for innovation