The Impact of the Draft EC Horizontal Guidelines on Intellectual Property Rights and Innovation

The European Commission’s Draft Guidelines on the Application of Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union to Horizontal Co-Operation Agreements (the “Draft Guidelines”) have attracted a multitude of comments from many interested parties. This has been particularly the case in relation to Chapter 7 of the Draft Guidelines that addresses “standardization agreements”-i.e., agreements that arise in connection with