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Enchelmaier, Stefan --- "Intellectual Property, the Internal Market and Competition Law" [2008] ELECD 258; in Drexl, Josef (ed), "Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Competition Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2008)

Book Title: Research Handbook on Intellectual Property and Competition Law

Editor(s): Drexl, Josef

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781845420475

Section: Chapter 16

Section Title: Intellectual Property, the Internal Market and Competition Law

Author(s): Enchelmaier, Stefan

Number of pages: 22

Extract:

16 Intellectual property, the internal market and
competition law
Stefan Enchelmaier



1 Introduction
Intellectual property, the internal market and the Community's competition
law are intertwined in several respects. The European Court of Justice's first
judgment on competition law, Consten and Grundig,1 is a case in point. The
distribution agreement there at issue purported to grant Grundig's exclusive
distributor in France, Consten, complete protection against parallel imports
from other Member States (also called `absolute territorial protection'). This
was to be achieved by means of a trade mark assigned exclusively to the
distributor. The Court therefore had to clarify the relationship between compe-
tition law (which was touched on by the exclusive distribution agreement), the
internal market (the prevention of all non-authorized imports into France), and
intellectual property law (the trademark employed to that end).
This connection between the three elements is reflected in the very word-
ing of the EC Treaty. Article 2 EC says that the aims of the Community (a
harmonious, balanced, and sustainable development of economic activities and
so on) shall be achieved by establishing, among other things, a `common
market'. This end is served, according to Article 3(1) EC, by `an internal
market characterized by the abolition, as between Member States, of obstacles
to the free movement of goods [and] services' (letter (c)), and by `a system
ensuring that competition in the internal market is not distorted' (letter (g)). The
provisions implementing these general stipulations in the Treaty are Articles
282 ...