Intellectual Property Laws vis-a-vis Competition Law

Competition and innovation are two major components of any market economy. They are the pillars on which growth; development and efficiency are built, generated and enhanced. Competition Law and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are both founded with the purpose of achieving economic development, technological advancement and consumer welfare. Intellectual property covers a bundle of rights such as patents, trademarks or copyrights, each of them different in scope and duration with a different purpose and effect. Intellectual property law subjects intellectual assets to the exclusive control of the owners, assignees and licensees. In other words, intellectual property laws are monopolistic in nature as they guarantee exclusive rights to the creators and owners of work and prevent commercial exploitation of innovation by others. Competition law on the other hand, seeks to promotes competition, increase access to market and benefit consumers by ensuring that the manufacturers and suppliers of goods, services and technologies effectively compete against each other. The main objective of competition law is to regulate the behavior that might harm the competitive process. Competition policy is of vital importance for the efficient functioning of market economies.