This is the tenth in a series of volumes based on the annual workshops on EU Competition Law and Policy held at the Robert Schuman Centre of the European University Institute in Florence. The volume reproduces the materials of the roundtable debate which examined the interaction between competition law and intellectual property law. The workshop participants - a group of senior representatives of the Commission and the national competition authorities of some EC Member States, reknowned international academics and legal practitioners - discussed the economic and legal issues that arise in this particular area of application of the EC competition rules, under the following headings: 1) whether the characteristics of intellectual property products/markets justify special treatment under the competition rules; 2) a critical assessment of the Block Exemption Regulation and corresponding Guidelines recently adopted in this area of EC competition law enforcement; 3) the specific enforcement issues that arise in relation to patent pools and collecting societies; and 4) specific problems related to IP in the domains of merger control and application of Article 82 EC.

Claus-Dieter Ehlermann is Senior Counsel with Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP in Brussels, former Professor of EC Law at the European University Institute in Florence, and former Director General in both the Competition Directorate and Legal Service of the European Commission.

Isabela Atanasiu is Research Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies of the European University Institute in Florence.