Guidelines on the Application of Competition Law to Intellectual Property Rights

From 5 April 2023, these exceptions will be removed, and all conduct relating to intellectual property will be capable of breaching the Act’s anti-competitive conduct provisions.

To assist businesses to better understand the application of competition law to intellectual property rights, we have drafted guidelines (draft Guidelines) that explain how the Commission assesses conduct relating to intellectual property under the Act. We are doing this to help businesses and other parties dealing with intellectual property rights to assess whether their conduct complies with the Act.

We are issuing the draft Guidelines for public consultation. We are keen to receive feedback and submissions on the draft Guidelines from interested parties, including responses to the following questions, which will assist us to better frame the final version of the guidelines for its intended audience:

• How would you use these guidelines in your organisation?
• What challenges do you consider your organisation may face because of the removal of the exceptions?
• Have the draft Guidelines affected your assessment of conduct in relation to intellectual property, or how you would advise clients?
• Is there any other information that the Commission could provide to support compliance with the Commerce Act regarding conduct in relation to intellectual property (for example fact sheets, webinars, attendance at industry conferences)?

You can read and download the draft Guidelines below.

Please send your submissions, feedback or comments on the draft Guidelines, to ipguidelines@comcom.govt.nz before 5pm on 10 February 2023.