Resumen de Intellectual property and competition law intertwined in the European Union: the IMS case

Roberto Laguado Giraldo

• This paper summarizes the legal arguments held by the European Court of Justice ruling the IMS-Health case, where European Competition Law and European Intellectual Property Law were placed vis-à-vis. The evolution of the Doctrine of Essential Facilities in the European case law is addressed in this comment emphasizing that new human creations such as those protected by copyrights, justify a renewed approach to the mentioned doctrine and that the rule of law held in the past years cannot be straightforwardly applied to all modern inventions and facilities. The sources for the research are Magill and Bronner's test on refusal to deal under article 82 of the Treaty Establishing the European Union (Competition Law Regulation). The paper concludes that IMS-Health case opened the discussion for determining how the two legal frameworks (Competition Law and Intellectual Property Law) should be balanced.