Regulation Of Competition And Innovation In India: Exploring The Jurisdictional Issues

Prof Dr R Haritha Devi, Director, Research, Publications & Academic Affairs, The Tamil Nadu Dr Ambedkar Law University, Chennai

ABSTRACT

The regulation of Competition and Innovation in India presents a complex interplay between various legal issues involving Competition Law and Intellectual Property Rights. A strong intellectual property regime encourages innovations and brings a sense of protection to the innovators. But as more innovations come to the market there must exist a fair market. Fairness in the market alone leads to better prices and availability of the products and services to the consumer. Competition Law maintains fairness in the market whereas intellectual property law gives exclusive protection to the innovators. The intersection of Competition Law and Intellectual Property Rights poses great challenges. Determining the boundary between the legitimate use of Intellectual property rights by the holders when they enter the market is the real challenge for the authorities. There is always a debatable discussion between these two regimes. Hence this paper tries to analyze the relationship between IP and Competition Law with special reference to the jurisdictional issues with the help of decided cases.

Keywords: Intellectual Property – Innovation – Competition Law – Jurisdiction – Fair Market – Consumer Rights.