Recently, the State Administration for Market Regulation of China revised and issued the Provisions on the Prohibition of the Abuse of Intellectual Property to Exclude or Restrict Competition, which will be officially implemented from August 1, 2023.

Compared to the Provisions on the Prohibition of the Abuse of Intellectual Property to Exclude or Restrict Competition formulated in 2015, the following aspects have been revised and improved emphatically:

One is to expand the connotation of "the abuse of intellectual property to exclude or restrict competition". The adjustment scope includes three types of monopolistic behaviors: reaching monopoly agreements through the exercise of intellectual property, abusing market dominance, and implementing concentration of operators that have or may have the effect of excluding or restricting competition.

The second aspect is to improve the recognition rules for monopolistic behavior through the exercise of intellectual property. According to the Antimonopoly Law revised in 2022, in combination with the characteristics of intellectual property and the reality of supervision, the definition of relevant market, the recognition and presumption of market dominance, the recognition of related monopoly behaviors, the consideration factors of review of concentration of operators and the specific types of additional restrictive conditions will be improved and refined so as to enhance the guidance and operability of the rules.

The third aspect is to strengthen the regulation of typical and special monopolistic behaviors in the field of intellectual property, such as improving relevant regulations on patent pooling; prohibiting patent pooling entities and members of patent pooling to engage in monopolistic behaviors through patent pooling; strengthening the regulation of related monopolistic behaviors in the process of standard formulation and implementation; and prohibiting operators with dominant market positions from using standard essential patents to implement "patent holdup".

Attachment of the full text: Provisions on the Prohibition of the Abuse of Intellectual Property to Exclude or Restrict Competition

(Source: IPRdaily)