The main objective of the contributions to this book is to bring together two seemingly
different strands of thought: the competition-law analysis of the exercise of intellectual
property and the discussion about the proper limits of protection which at present takes
place inside the intellectual property community. Both are burdened with their own problems
particularly so in Europe where market integration and the divide between exclusionary and
exploitative abuses ask for a more dimensional approach and where the shaping of intellectual
property protection is under not only the influence of many interests and policies but a
multi-level exercise of the Community and its member states. The question is whether
nevertheless there is a common concern or whether the frequently asserted convergence of the
operation and of the goals of competition law and intellectual property law does not mask a
fundamental difference - namely that of on the one hand protecting freedom of competition
against welfare-reducing restrictions of competition only and on the other limiting the
protection of exclusive rights in the (public) interest of maintaining free access to general
knowledge. The purpose of the workshop held in 2007 at the College of Europe Bruges and whose
results are published here was to ask which role market power plays in either context which
role it may legitimately play and which role it ought not to play. A tentative answer might be
found in the general principle that just as intellectual property does not enjoy a particular
status under competition law so competition law may not come as a white knight to rescue
intellectual property protection from itself. However the meaning of that principle differs
according to both the context of the acquisition and the exploitation of intellectual property
and it differs from one area of intellectual property to the other. Therefore an attempt has
also been made to cover more facets of the prism-like complex of problems than is generally
done.
