European Commission Adopts Revised Competition Regime For Technology Transfer Agreements

On 21 March 2014, the European Commission published a revised Regulation on the application of Article 101(3) TFEU to categories of technology transfer agreements. The purpose of the revised Regulation is to update and replace the Technology Transfer Block Exemption Regulation 772/2004 ("TTBER") that is scheduled to expire on 30 April 2014. The Commission also published Guidelines on the application of Article 101 TFEU to technology transfer agreements (the "Guidelines").

Technology transfer agreements involve a licensed technology such as a patented invention, know-how or software for the production of goods and services. Such agreements can be concluded bilaterally or between several parties (e.g., patent pools), as well as between competitors and non-competitors. Competition rules are supposed to make sure that technology transfer agreements are pro-competitive and do not prevent innovation. The principal rules for these types of agreements are contained in: the