Published: 2/1/16
Publication: IPKat
The Japan Fair Trade Commission (‘JFTC’) have recently released an amendment to the “Guidelines for the Use of Intellectual Property under the Antimonopoly Act” after receiving over 50 opinions during the public consultation in July-August last year. The amendment is aimed to address the issue of how the JFTC approach cases involving standard essential patents in patent litigation (the JFTC’s official English translation of the amended Guideline is viewable here).
According to the summary of opinions and the JFTC’s responses (available only in Japanese), the public showed concerns that the earlier draft could be construed as implying that seeking injunctive relief would generally be considered to be monopolisation and/or unreasonable restraint of trade, and therefore illegal.