EU Clarifies Exemption of Technology Transfers from Antitrust Law

Last spring, the Commission of the European Union issued new regulations and guidelines on the application of EU antitrust law to technology transfer agreements (Commission Regulation No. 772/2004 of 27 April 2004). For the most part, EU antitrust law (or competition law, as it is called) is stricter than the American version. Consequently, many agreements and ventures that would be uncontroversial in this country have come under the scrutiny of EU antitrust authorities. The purpose of the new regulations is to expand a "block exemption" from antitrust liability for technology transfer agreements. The result is that the parties to the most common types of patent, copyright and know-how (trade secret, in American terminology) licenses can proceed without fear of running afoul of EU antitrust law.