Intellectual property rights run counter to the interests of consumers and the public. They are also exploited in anti-competitive ways. On this account these rights should be qualified or subjected to competition regulation. The globalization of intellectual property exposes the interests of consumers and the public to greater risks unless appropriate mechanisms of protection are developed.
This article is based on an Australian submission to an OECD Competition Law and Policy Committee, Roundtable on Intellectual Property Rights, October 1997.
(1992) 36 FCR 340.
(1997) 145 ALR 21.
National Competition Policy, Report by the Independent Committee of Inquiry, AGPS, Canberra, 1993.
Radio Telefs Eireann v. European Commission (1995) 4 CMLR 718.
Ibid, at 729.
Ibid, at 730.
Ibid, at 757.
But the external affairs power granted to the Federal Parliament by the Australian Constitution would not authorize a contrary law.