경쟁법과 지식재산권의 긴장관계에 대한 이해

It is often explained that there are tensions between competition law and intellectual property law due to different purposes and natures of two systems. Those who have intellectual property rights hold not only legal rights of an access to the intellectual rights but also monopolistic rights to charge loyalty of intellectual property rights. Accordingly, tensions could be generated between intellectual property law and competition law (and policies) that regulates abusive market power. It is noteworthy that an intellectual property right holder’s monopolistic power to impose loyalty is not same as the concept of monopoly in Fair Trade Act. As more goods and services are protected by intellectual property rights, there are many cases where the two different regulatory regimes should be considered in a careful way. The recent legal discussion has been deepened in terms of coexistence and coherence between competition regulation and intellectual property rights. In addition, in search of harmonious policies and legal enforcement, many countries including Korea have proposed many theories and guidelines. To achieve the balance between competition law and intellectual property law, it is of significance that intellectual property protection should be accompanied with and be understood in the context of competition law enforcement. For the balance and harmony between two regulatory systems, authorities should treat intellectual property rights and competition law in an equal manner. Accordingly, only after sufficient discussion and the fine-tuning process, the stable relationship of the two regulatory systems will be maintained. Based on the stability, the goals of the two regulatory systems—i.e., the efficient competition and innovation—will be achieved.