China's State Administration for Industry and Commerce
(SAIC) has issued a new draft of its regulations governing
antitrust enforcement of intellectual property rights (the
"Rules"). The Rules are designed to protect competition,
encourage innovation, and prevent the abuse of intellectual
property rights to eliminate or restrict competition. The Rules
establish a general principle that undertakings shall not conclude
monopolistic agreements as prohibited in the Anti-Monopoly Law by
exploiting intellectual property rights.
The Rules address a broad range of intellectual property
licensing conduct, including refusals to license essential patents,
exclusive dealing, tying arrangements, exclusive grantbacks,
no-challenge clauses, imposing restrictions or demanding royalties
after a patent expires, discriminating among licensees without
justification, etc. They also provide guidelines for participating
in patent pools, which are similar to some of the rules the
