The thesis reviews current patent strategies of original pharmaceutical companies and their tangled role in the fabric of European pharmaceutical innovation and competition. It addresses several components of the European pharmaceutical industry such as regulatory framework, patent filing and dispute strategies and competition law. It argues that patent law is embedded in a broader competition law framework however plays on a separate field where it governs primarily the entry to its exclusive space by market actors. However it asserts that competition law should serve as a time referee for the patent law playfield and check if the abusive prolongation of exclusive patent position does not occur. The thesis deliberates that in view of ever rising number of patent applications, abuse of the patent system may become symptomatic to the system. The Commission data presented in the Final Report on the pharmaceutical sector inquiry are again inspected. Although data should be used with caution, it revealed a good quantitative base for assessment of a system which seemingly becomes more entropic, complex and susceptible to abuse. Therefore the underlying principles in both patent and competition law should be upheld more strongly than ever. It is the principle of fairness that should have normative force...

1 Abstract Diploma thesis: Regulation and its impact on the conduct of an undertaking Regulation is a very large term that describes a wide scope of activities of the state and other entities that aim at channelling the activities of the undertakings in order to enhance competition and protect consumers and other third parties. This paper analyses the economic and other rationale for regulating markets and describes techniques of regulation. Regulation mainly focuses on mitigating or removing market failures that are caused by a number of factors: existence of monopolies or natural monopolies, windfall profits, externalities, information inadequacy, unequal bargaining power, anticompetitive behaviour and predatory pricing, use of public goods or problems with continuity and availability of services. These market failures can be removed or mitigated by a number of different regulatory strategies that are chosen by the relevant state. The choice of regulatory strategy shall be based on a thorough regulatory impact assessment carried out before the implementation of the specific measure. Regulatory strategies can be grouped in the following regulation schemes: first of all, command and control regulation, the strictest type of regulation, under which the legislator and/or regulator impose a specific rule...

Exemptions from cartel prohibition English summary On 16 of December 2002 the European Commission adopted a Regulation Nr. 1/2003 on the implementation of the rules on competition laid down in Articles 81 and 82 of the Treaty which was revolutionary as it has totally changed the way of obtaining a legal exemption from a prohibition of cartel agreements contained in an article 81 section 1 of the EC Treaty. Before the Regulation the Commission granted its approval for exempting certain types of agreements which fulfilled the conditions under the article 81 section 3 of the EC Treaty, i.e. if they contribute to improving the production or distribution of goods or to promoting technical or economic progress, while allowing consumers a fair share of the resulting benefit, and which does not impose on the undertakings concerned restrictions which are not indispensable to the attainment of these objectives and afford such undertakings the possibility of eliminating competition in respect of a substantive part of the products in question. A weak point of such a regulation was that the Commission was permanently overloaded by numerous demands for declaration of inapplicability of a cartel prohibition. Therefore there was strong need to modify the system in order to make the work of the Commission more effective....

Title: Selected Aspects of Private Enforcement of Competition Law The purpose of the study is to analyse and compare selected provisions and legislative proposals regarding to the rules of evidence and locus standi as they are codified in Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and in Czech Rules of Civil Procedure as well as selected aspects of Private Enforcement of Competition Law in UK. It should be stressed the fact that the rules of evidence and locus standi are seen through a prism of antitrust claims for damages. The study is composed of six chapters, each of them dealing with different aspect of Private Enforcement of Competition Law. Chapter One is introductory and defines basic terminology used in the study. Chapter Two focuses on legal basis for antitrust claims for damages. Chapter Three consists of three parts. Part One focuses on locus standi issue in US Law. Part Two is an analysis of proposals of EU Commission as well as relevant judgements of Court of Justice of European Union. Partial conclusions are drawn in Part Three. Chapter Four consists of three parts. Part One investigates the principles of rules of evidence as they are codified in Czech Law. Part Two discusses the American attitude to rules of evidence. Partial conclusions are drawn in Part Three. Chapter Five consists also of...

Legal rules protecting the economic competition against abusive pricing practices are traditionally part of the public branch of competition law. Sensitive drafting of the law by legislator or the prudence of law interpretation by the competition authority or the court in the specific case predetermines the companies` willingness to develop dynamically on the relevant market. Legislation of the poor quality prospectively misleading decisional practice can lead in two extreme situations; on one side unlimited freedom for the dominant company, on the other side unfounded and excessive sanctions, which distract the companies` ambitions to achieve excellence. The topic - The Protection of Economic Competition with Special Regard to Pricing - is dealt in five chapters of the thesis. The aim of the paper is to analyze substantial components in each price form of abuse, solve the relevant questions of law with regard to case study concerning both the European and the Czech context and consider where the development of this law field currently results in. The methodology is mainly based on the comparative and critical research of the decisional practice. Chapter One surveys predatory pricing. It contains passage on the price-costs test, which is the major issue also for the following chapters of the study....

The Legal Exceptions from the Cartel Prohibition with Regard to Crisis Cartels English summary The purpose of the thesis is to provide a comprehensive perspective on the issue of the legal exceptions from the cartel prohibition, carry out a detailed analysis of Czech and European material regulation contained in the Article 3 paragraph 4 of the Act No. 143/2001 Coll. on Protection of Competition, as amended and in the Article 101 paragraph 3 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, focus on the application of the legal exceptions to the crisis cartels from the practical point of view, particularly on their usage by undertakings and on the approach to the crisis cartels by national competition authorities, European Commission and competition authorities from other selected countries outside Europe. The thesis is composed of four parts. The first part deals with the basic characteristics of the cartel, describes the concept of cartel, European and Czech legislation regarding cartels and competition in general and divides the cartels according to their form and relationship of participants. The second part focuses on the prohibition of anticompetitive conduct in the form of cartels, examines the merits of the cartel and highlights the consequences of breaching the prohibition. It is necessary to...

In the past, an Irish barrister and arbitrator James Bridgeman remarked that the arbitration of competition law is a meeting of two black arts. This perception has not changed since and yet, the adjudication of anti-competitive agreements in arbitration is an everyday event of real life. This thesis, after a brief summary of history of arbitrability of competition law, picks specific issues closely tied to current practical problems that arbitrators must face. First, whether arbitrators should consider themselves as being under obligation to raise competition issues of their own motion (ex officio) during arbitration proceedings, secondly, whether national courts of the EU Member States must automatically set arbitral awards in breach of competition rules aside and thirdly, whether arbitrators are in a good position to address complex antitrust questions properly and whether they can receive some help from the official competition authorities entrusted with primary enforcement of antitrust law. Mainly EU law will be covered here albeit with few brief excursions into particular problems of national law of the Czech Republic, to which this thesis endorses relevant solutions.

The purpose of my thesis is to analyse the state of private enforcement of competition law in the European Union and the Czech Republic by taking into consideration the proposals set forth in the Green and White Paper on damages actions for breach of EC antitrust rules issued by the European Commission which were inspired by the U.S. system of private enforcement of antitrust law. Further on, the possible impact of the implementation of such proposals into Czech law will be assessed and experience of Member states will be considered. The dynamic development of this area of law and the never ending political and legal debate on the possibilities of private enforcement in Europe was the reason for why I have chosen to write my thesis on this topic. The thesis is composed of eight chapters, each of them dealing with different aspects of private enforcement of competition law. Chapter One is introductory and is divided into three parts. Part one tackles the difference between public and private enforcement. Part two deals with the evolution of the concept of damages claims and introduces the most relevant decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union. The third part identifies the problems occurring with damages claims. Chapter Two examines the question of applicable law. Chapter Three...

Competition law - control of concentrations between undertakings Abstract The subject of this thesis is the control of mergers as it is regulated by Czech laws. Control of mergers is one of the cornerstones of competition law. Competition is an important attribute of the market oriented economies all over the world. Since it is not capable of self-regulation it is necessary to set limits for the behavior of the subjects that are taking part in this competition. These limits are set by competition law. The topic is divided into three chapters. The first chapter contains definition of the term competition, in the second there are described basic terms common to all areas of competition law, while at the end of this chapter there is a description of these areas. In the last chapter focus is on control of concentrations itself in the ambit of Czech law. The aim of this work is to describe merger control as it is provided by Act No. 143/2001 on Protection of Competition (ZOHS). The emphasis is on describing different forms of merger and their characteristics which must be met so that a certain transaction could be classified as a merger. Furthermore, this work provides information on conditions that must be fulfilled so that a merger, division of a company and termination of the company accompanied by transfer...

The subject of this thesis is the control of mergers as it is regulated by Czech laws. Control of mergers is one of the cornerstones of competition law. Competition is an important attribute of the market oriented economies all over the world. Since it is not capable of self-regulation it is necessary to set limits for the behavior of the subjects that are taking part in this competition. These limits are set by competition law. The topic is divided into three chapters. The first chapter contains definition of the term competition, in the second there are described basic terms common to all areas of competition law, while at the end of this chapter there is a description of these areas. In the last chapter focus is on control of concentrations itself in the ambit of Czech law. The aim of this work is to describe merger control as it is provided by Act No. 143/2001 on Protection of Competition (ZOHS). The emphasis is on describing different forms of merger and their characteristics which must be met so that a certain transaction could be classified as a merger. Furthermore, this work provides information on conditions that must be fulfilled so that a merger, division of a company and termination of the company accompanied by transfer of assets to its partner - according to the Czech law on...