The guideline against monopolies resulting from misuse of intellectual property rights, drafted bythe National Development and Reform Commission, was released on the last day of 2015 forpublic review.
The draft edition was finished in late October. The drafters had asked for advice from industryassociations, companies, lawyers and scholars before the guidelines were made public, saidZhang Handong, head of the price-supervision and anti-monopoly bureau of the NDRC.
They also sent the draft to some foreign anti-monopoly agencies and international organizations,inviting comment.
The edition will be submitted to the State Council in the first half of this year, Zhang said.
The guideline "talks about protocols between market operators with or without competitiverelations", and covers eight possible conditions including cross-licensing, joint research anddevelopment and price limits, said Lu Yanchun, deputy director of the price-supervision and anti-monopoly bureau.
"All of the conditions may eliminate or reduce competition and restrain innovation, but mayincrease efficiency," Lu said. "We need to analyze each case individually to avoid prosecution ofjust use of IP rights."
Xu Xinyu, an official at the bureau, said the guideline defines whether an IP rights owner hasmisused market dominance based on international theories and common practice, as well as theexperience of domestic law enforcement in recent years. One such case involved the USsmartphone chipmaker Qualcomm, which was fined 6 billion yuan ($920 million) last year forviolating China's anti-monopoly law.
Shi Jianzhong, deputy president of the China University of Political Science and Law and amember of the drafting team, said that one of the highlights in the guideline is the introduction ofmarket share criteria.
"By setting such criteria, the guideline rules that those protocols that do not greatly excludecompetition can be forgiven according to the anti-monopoly law," he said. "The introduction ofmarket share criteria will provide companies with clearer rational expectations and reduce theircompliance costs."
The NDRC has the responsibility to draft six books of guidelines related to the anti-monopoly law,which it began in June 2015.

Source: China Daily