Competition and Confidentiality Issues :

The principle underlying competition law is that the public interest is best served by competitive markets, which are socially desirable because they lead to an efficient allocation of resources. Competition law seeks to prevent companies from inappropriately creating, enhancing or maintaining market power that undermines competition without offering economic benefits. Market power refers to the ability of firms to profitably cause one or more facets of competition, such as price, output, quality, variety, service, advertising or innovation, to significantly deviate from competitive levels for a sustainable period of time.

Intellectual property law and competition law are therefore two complementary instruments that promote economic efficiency. While Intellectual property laws provide incentives for innovation and technological diffusion by establishing enforceable property rights for the creators of new and useful products, technologies and original works of expression, Competition Laws may be invoked to protect these incentives from anti-competitive conduct that creates, enhances or maintains market power or otherwise harms or distorts competition in a given market.

Since the right to exclude, which is the basis of intellectual property rights, is necessary for efficient, competitive markets, the enforcement of the Competition Law rarely interferes with the exercise of this basic right. However, enforcement action under the Competition Law may be warranted when anti-competitive conduct of the owner of intellectual property creates, enhances or maintains market power so as to cause appreciable adverse impact on competition.