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Contributions to festschriften
Intellectual Property and Competition Law

Exclusive Rights for a Purpose - Intellectual Property as a Framework Regulation of Innovation Markets

Lamping, MatthiasExclusive Rights for a Purpose - Intellectual Property as a Framework Regulation of Innovation Markets in: A Critical Mind - Hanns Ullrich’s Footprint in Internal Market Law, Antitrust and Intellectual Property (MPI Studies on Intellectual Property and Competition Law, 30), Springer, Berlin; Heidelberg 2023, 219 - 236.

The following glimpse into Hanns Ullrich’s academic œuvre draws on one of his most distinctive theories about the relation between intellectual property, competition and market regulation: the perception of the intellectual property system as a “framework regulation of innovation markets” and the concomitant understanding of intellectual property rights as “exclusive rights for a purpose”. This shines a spotlight on the double-edged nature of intellectual property as a private right, on the one hand, and a regulatory tool, on the other. Intellectual property rights are exclusive rights by design, but their purpose transcends the proprietary power afforded by them. This chapter addresses the conflict between ‘form’ and ‘function’ that arises if the existence or exercise of intellectual property rights is not aligned with their regulatory purpose.

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