Competition Bureau Releases Draft Update Of Intellectual Property Enforcement Guidelines

On April 2, 2014, the Competition Bureau ("Bureau") released a draft update of its Intellectual Property Enforcement Guidelines ("IPEGs"), which sets out the Bureau's views concerning the manner in which the provisions of the Competition Act would be applied to conduct involving intellectual property rights. On the same day, the Bureau and the Canadian Intellectual Property Office announced that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) calling for closer cooperation between the two agencies.

The IPEGs were first released in 2000. The update includes revisions to reflect amendments made to the Competition Act in March 2009 and in March 2010 and to bring the IPEGs in line with other Bureau enforcement guidelines released since 2000. The update does not, however, represent a significant departure with respect to how the Bureau approaches the interface between competition policy and intellectual property rights, and the circumstances in which the Bureau may