https://apps.eui.eu/EventRegistration/Home/Login?eventId=585237

The relationship between intellectual property (IP) rights and competition policy is complex, especially when viewed through the lens of innovation. At a high level, there is a broad consensus that IP and competition policy, each with its own instruments, share the objective of enhancing consumer welfare and promoting innovation and are, in this sense, complementary. In practice, however, the ‘if’ and ‘how’ innovation considerations (e.g., incentives, appropriability and diffusion) inform competition policy design and enforcement, particularly in IP-intensive cases, raise significant analytical and institutional challenges. Technological and societal developments are reshaping innovation processes, from cumulative and data-driven R&D to platform-based ecosystems, with corresponding shifts in how IP rights are deployed as strategic assets in the market. At the same time, differences in the treatment of IP rights under competition policy across jurisdictions can generate geopolitical frictions, given the central role of IP in international trade and the extra-territorial reach of competition rules. Against this background, the Munich Conference on IP, Competition and Innovation welcomes unpublished papers from lawyers and economists, both on cross-cutting and sector-specific IP and competition law issues. The selected contributions will be discussed in-depth during the two-day event, emphasising the societal impact of the research findings.