Japan Fair Trade Commission Issues Revised Guidelines for the use of Intellectual Property under the Antimonopoly Act

Published: 1/30/16

Japan’s Fair Trade Commission recently revised its Guidelines for the use of Intellectual Property under the Antimonopoly Act.  This is the second jurisdiction in the last year or so to characterize, by guideline or regulation (as opposed to relying only on enforcement authority), certain breaches of FRAND commitments as anti-competitive under their national competition laws.  Other competition agencies, such as the Canadian Bureau and Korea’s Fair Trade Commission, also are revising their IP guidelines to address breaches of FRAND commitments.