Abuse of Dominant Position by Refusing to Issue Copyright Licenses

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to analyze when firms abuse their dominant position, specifically with respect to refusing to issue copyright licenses. The objective is to understand what is meant by abuse by a dominant enterprise and view how different jurisdictions such as the United States (US) and European Union (EU) have dealt with the same, in order to examine the ability of the Indian legal framework to handle such cases. The scope of the paper is limited to providing a comparative analysis of the EU and US and attempts to apply the same to India. This paper seeks to explore whether competition law and intellectual property law intersect with each other and seeks to examine when dominant conduct can be regarded as abusive. The paper also scrutinizes how the US and EU courts have dealt with cases of denial of IPR license and whether the Indian scenario is well equipped to effectively handle cases of refusal to license.