Refusal to license and development of essential facilities doctrine on the area of intellectual property rights in EU law

Pravo intelektualne lastnine in konkurenčno pravo sta pravna sistema, ki s skupnim ciljem gospodarske učinkovitosti varujeta različne dobrine. Pravo intelektualne lastnine podeljuje izključne pravice stvaritelju za izključno uporabo njegove stvaritve. Konkurenčno pravo s splošno prepovedjo uporabe nelojalnih sredstev skrbi za zagotovitev učinkovite konkurence, tudi s prepovedjo zlorabe prevladujočega položaja. Ker pravice intelektualne lastnine s podelitvijo ekskluzivnosti imetniku omogočajo pridobitev prevladujočega položaja, saj lahko ustvarjajo monopole in monopoli so nezdružljivi z delovanjem učinkovite konkurence, lahko nastane situacija, ko izvrševanje ekskluzivnih pravic intelektualne lastnine predstavlja ravnanje, ki nasprotuje določilom člena 102 Pogodbe o delovanju Evropske unije in izzove konkurenčnopravno posredovanje. Le-to je problematično, saj posega v samo načelo pogodbene svobode na eni strani in v samo bistvo pravic, ki jih podeljuje pravo intelektualne lastnine, na drugi strani. Imetnik intelektualne lastnine ima pravico druge izključiti od njene uporabe, kar pomeni, da ima tudi pravico odkloniti licenco ali prodajo zaščitenega proizvoda, zato morajo biti pogoji, pod katerimi je taka odklonitev predmet presoje konkurenčnega prava, zelo jasni. Osrednje vprašanje konflikta med intelektualno lastnino in učinkovito konkurenco je, ali se mora odklonitev licence pravice intelektualne lastnine obravnavati enako kot vse ostale primere zavrnitve dobave. Odgovor na to vprašanje seveda ni enostaven in zahteva težavno uravnoteženje interesa popolne izrabe pravice intelektualne lastnine na eni in interesa ohranitve učinkovite konkurence na drugi strani. Če se presoja zgolj v korist prvega interesa, je velika nevarnost, da bodo stroga konkurenčna pravila preprečila investicije in inovacije, kar oslabi gospodarsko konkurenčnost če pa se bi bili imetniki pravic intelektualne lastnine imuni pred pravili konkurenčnega prava, bi to lahko vodilo do nerazumnih stopenj monopolne moči. Kako se v sodni praksi EU razvija pristop reševanja primerov odklonitve licence pravice intelektualne lastnine, je osrednji predmet te naloge. Intellectual property law and competition law are two legal regimes with distinct purposes and one main objective. Both are centered toward the goal of efficient economy. Intellectual property law confers exclusive rights to its proprietor for exclusive use of his creation. Competition law maintains efficient competition on the market, also by preventing the abuse of dominant position. By granting exclusivity, intellectual property rights can constitute dominant position of their proprietor, they can create monopolies, which is incompatible with functioning of efficient competition and leads to a situation, when the use of exclusive intellectual property rights represents an action contrary to the article 102 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union and causes competition remedy. Latter is problematic since it interferes with the principle of the freedom of business cooperation on the one hand and with the very subject matter of intellectual property rights on the other. Proprietor of intellectual property right has a right to exclude others from the use of his creation, which also means the right to refuse to license or sell protected product. Therefore, the conditions for treating such activities within the scope of competition law have to be precise and clear. Central question of the conflict between intellectual property and efficient competition is, whether the assessment of refusal to license intellectual property rights is the same as the assessment of other forms of refusals to supply. Answer to this is not simple and demands difficult balancing of the interest of full use of intellectual property rights on the one hand and the interest of preserving efficient competition on the other. If only benefits of the former prevail, there is a great danger for incentives for investments and innovation. But if rules of competition law do not affect proprietors of intellectual property rights, there is a danger of formation of immense monopoly powers. Development of the approach on solving the cases of refusal to license in EU case law is the central subject of this thesis.