Trade law Part 48

Who Needs Intellectual Property? Competition Law And Restrictions on Parallel Trade within the European Economic Area
CHRISTOPHER STOTHERS
European Intellectual Property Review
Volume 27, Issue 12, December 2005 p.458

This article reviews four recent cases on the application of competition law to restraints on parallel trade within the European Economic Area: Bayer (Adalat), Glaxo Wellcome (Spanish Dual Pricing), Syfait v GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca. It is suggested that, viewed in the light of the previous case law, these cases only allow a limited scope for taking unilateral action to limit such trade without infringing Art.81 or Art.82 of the EC Treaty, although within that limited scope undertakings are unlikely to infringe Art.28 of the EC Treaty. As a consequence, notwithstanding the principle of exhaustion there remains a strong role for robust enforcement of intellectual property rights by those who wish to restrict parallel trade within the EEA.

REGIONAL ECONOMIC ARRANGEMENTS AND THE Rule of law IN THE AMERICAS: THE HUMAN RIGHTS FACE OF FREE TRADE AGREEMENTS
Stephen J. Powell
Florida Journal of International Law
Volume 17, Number 1, March 2005 p.59

The significance of the King Reports and the Department Of Trade and Industry’s policy statements on South Africa’s corporate law and worker participation reform programmes — Part 2
Michael Spisto
Australian Journal of Corporate Law
Volume 18, Number 3, November 2005 p.304

The Authoritative Interpretation Under Article IX:2 of the Agreement Establishing the World Trade Organization: Current Law, Practice and Possible Improvements
Claus-Dieter Ehlermann and Lothar Ehring
Journal of International Economic Law
Volume 8, Number 4, December 2005 p.803-824

PROTECTING TRADE SECRETS IN DISCOVERY: DOES VIRGINIA LAW ADEQUATELY PROTECT TRADE SECRETS?
Lisa Moran McMurdo
Journal of Civil Litigation
Volume 17, Number 3, Fall 2005 p.235

The uncertain application of competition law in health care markets
Stephen Corones
Australian Business Law Review
Volume 33, Number 6, December 2005 p.407

Increasingly, competition and an expanded private sector are seen as having an important role to play in reducing costs and improving efficiency in health care markets. Competition and economic efficiency are two separate concepts for the purposes of the Trade Practices Act 1974 (Cth). This article draws attention to a number of market failures and imperfections in health care markets which are likely to have a bearing on conventional competition analysis. The existence of these market failures such as imperfect information, agency relationships and the role played by government intervention in occupational licensing for health care professionals and the regulation of pricing through the Medicare rebate schedule, may impede competition on the merits. In some cases these market imperfections give rise to inefficiencies that can only be cured by professional intervention to protect consumers. They are, however, a matter of degree. Each case calls for an analysis of the extent to which the particular health care market departs from the neoclassical economist’s ideal. This article considers the way in which the courts, the Tribunal and the ACCC have applied conventional competition analysis in recent health care cases and examines the categories of market defects that may justify professional intervention to give effect to improvements that qualify for authorisation.

Bob McComas and the Trade Practices Commission: Doing it his way
Stephen Corones, David Merrett and David Round
Australian Business Law Review
Volume 33, Number 6, December 2005 p.475

As part of a wider research project on the history of competition law and its enforcement in Australia from 1973 to 2003, the authors interviewed the four Chairmen who guided the Trade Practices Commission and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission over this period, in order to get their views of their role in its history. Given the untimely death on July 27 2005 of Bob McComas, the second Chairman who held office for three years from February 1985 to February 1988, it was thought fitting to publish a brief record of parts of the interview with him (which took place on 24 January 2005), in which Bob discussed the background, agenda, legacies and disappointments of his term in office. He was contemplating writing his memoirs, and so he had thought in detail about many of the issues raised during the interview. He regarded himself as significantly different from the other three Chairmen, and made no apologies for his relatively non-litigious approach to preserving the competitive process in Australian markets.

Author: international

Mentioned in these Entries

Rule of law, Trade law.