Events

Firms have increasingly been competing through design. We show how computer vision techniques can be leveraged to measure the visual similarity of design rights across large data sets of product design images. Thus we extract and standardize 611,810 unique design images embedded in US design rights (1976–2020), adapt the structural similarity index measure to quantify design similarities between images, and rigorously validate the resulting design rights similarity measure. We then use that measure to produce novel empirical evidence that the similarity density of a design space exhibits an inverted U-shape with respect to the likelihood of that space’s design rights being litigated—a relationship proposed previously but never tested. Our design rights similarity measure should facilitate the exploration of new research questions in the fields of design rights, innovation, and strategy. We grant open access to our code and data resources to encourage research in these areas. 
(co-authored with Tian Cian and Cornelia Storz)

Contact person: David Heller

Subscription to the invitation mailing list and more information on the seminar page.

Panel 1: Ukraine: The “Other” Science

Panel 2: Intellectual Property Data: the Case of Ukraine

Panel 3: Exploring Entrepreneurship and Industry in Ukraine: A Data-driven Perspective

Contact person: Liudmyla Petrenko

The Munich Summer Institute (MSI) is hosted by the Center for Law & Economics at ETH Zurich, HEC Lausanne, Northeastern University, the Chair for Technology and Innovation Management at TUM, the Chair for Economics of Innovation at TUM, the Institute for Strategy, Technology and Organization (ISTO) at the LMU Munich and the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition.

Further information on the website of the MSI.

Title and abstract will follow.

Contact person: Svenja Friess

Subscription to the invitation mailing list and more information on the seminar page.

The international mobility of researchers has been central to the agenda of policy-makers for several decades. Despite the growing presence of mobility grants within public funding agencies' portfolios, empirical evidence on their effects remains scant. In this paper, we contribute to the literature by studying the Marie Curie fellowships, the flagship program of the EU, providing competitive grants to early-stage researchers to spend a research period abroad. Based on data for the universe of applicants to the Seventh Framework Programme (2007-2013), we exploit the discontinuity in grant assignment to uncover causal effects on individual researchers. Results show that grants are indeed conducive to higher chances of experiencing mobility towards the scientists' country of choice. Conversely, we do not find systematic evidence that grants on average lead to increases in publication quantity or quality, nor improved career progression. Finally, we document interesting heterogeneous effects: grants supporting extra-European mobility, as opposed to those supporting mobility within Europe, generally yield more positive effects across most outcomes. This suggests that grants are most effective when targeting mobility flows subject to larger frictions. (co-authors: Stefano Baruffaldi, Yevgeniya Shevtsova)

Contact person: David Heller

Subscription to the invitation mailing list and more information on the seminar page.

Title and abstract will follow.

Contact person: Svenja Friess

Subscription to the invitation mailing list and more information on the Seminarseite.

Title and abstract will follow.

Contact person: Marina Chugunova

Subscription to the invitation mailing list and more information on the seminar page.

Title and abstract will follow soon.

Contact person: Marina Chugunova

Subscription to the invitation mailing list and more information on the seminar page.

Two years after the Florence SEP Seminar, the European University Institute (EUI) and the Max-Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition invite submissions to their scientific conference on ‘IP, Competition and Innovation’ to be held in Florence at the EUI Campus on 3 – 4 October 2024.

The relationship between intellectual property (IP) rights and competition law is complex. There is broad high-level consensus that IP laws and competition law, each with its specific legal instruments, share the common objective of enhancing consumer welfare and promoting innovation and are, as such, complementary. Though straightforward in theory, the extent to and how innovation considerations inform the competition law enforcement in general, and in IP-related cases in particular, pose significant challenges. Moreover, technological and societal developments are changing innovation processes and market competition. These changes, in turn, impact the role and use of IP rights in the market. Additionally, differences in how IP rights are treated under competition law across jurisdictions can be the source of geopolitical tensions, given the pivotal role that IP protection has acquired in international trade and the extraterritorial reach of competition laws.

Key topics at the intersection of IP and competition emerge across several innovative industries. As one of the most R&D-intensive industries, IP-related competition cases have been most prominent in the pharmaceutical sector. While competition authorities have focused much on reverse-payment settlements in the past years, the potential anticompetitive nature of other patenting and licensing strategies is becoming the focus of interest. Likewise, competition law enforcers are increasingly testing new innovation-related theories of harm in their assessment of pharmaceutical mergers. In the information and communications technology (ICT) sector, issues concerning licensing and enforcing standard essential patents (SEPs) have been hotly debated for years. At the same time, as the Internet of Things advances, novel questions arise from integrating ICT technologies in more traditional industries. Finally, competition law challenges to copyright exclusivity are expanding beyond the area of collective management organisations into digital markets. In this context, recent discussions revolve around restrictions on open-source licensing by dominant IP rightsholders and on interoperability obligations of digital platforms.

Policy developments in Europe are also reshaping the interplay of IP rights and competition law. Since April 2023, a proposal for a Regulation on SEPs, representing the most significant change in the standardisation context since the SDOs’ adoption of IPR policies in the early 1990s, is undergoing the legislative process. Moreover, starting in June 2023, the Unitary Patent system finally provides a single patent right and a court system for 17 EU Member States. The Unified Patent Court can significantly contribute to the EU competition law jurisprudence by hearing defences related to dominance abuses in patent infringement actions and making preliminary references to the CJEU

Furthermore, the Commission is working to introduce by 2025 new guidelines on exclusionary abuses, including IP-related practices. In parallel, the European Commission has just launched the process for reforming the Block Exemption Regulation on Technology Transfer Agreements, which expires in 2026. This regulation and the accompanying Guidelines are the primary reference source of the EU policy on IP licensing and serve as a role model for other jurisdictions.

Against this background, the Florence Conference on IP, Competition and Innovation welcomes unpublished papers from lawyers and economists both on cross-cutting and sector-specific IP and competition policy issues. In particular, we invite theoretical and empirical contributions on the following topics:

• IP and competition within innovation networks and ecosystems
• IP as an economic competitiveness index at the micro and macro levels
• IP valuation and royalty rate calculation
• Market definition and market power analysis in IP-related cases
• The role of competition law and IP in R&D agreements
• Bilateral and multilateral IP licensing, including the reform of EU Block- Exemption Regulation for Technology Transfer Agreements
• The role of IP and innovation in merger control cases
• IP, competition and innovation in digital markets, including challenges related to artificial intelligence
• IP enforcement, alternative dispute resolution and competition law defences
• Sector-specific IP and competition law issues (e.g., pharmaceuticals, standards and SEPs, open-source software)

Program

The goal of the Florence Conference on IP, Competition and Innovation is to stimulate an in-depth discussion of selected academic papers with particular emphasis on the policy impact of the research findings. Each paper will be allocated 30 minutes, divided between 15 minutes for the author’s presentation and the rest for discussion by a pre-assigned fellow participant and questions from invited attendees.

Keynote Speaker

The Florence Conference on IP, Competition and Innovation will feature a keynote lecture by Herbert Hovenkamp (University of Pennsylvania).

Submission

Please submit extended abstracts (min. five pages) or full papers to the following link by 2 June 2024: Submission
Acceptance notifications will be sent by the end of June 2024. The final paper versions of the selected submissions are due by 15 September 2024.

Best Junior Paper Awards

Two Best Junior Paper Awards will be given for the best contribution among those submitted by authors not older than 35 years, respectively in the fields of law and of economics. Scholars will be required to provide proof of their date of birth to be eligible for this award. All co-authors of joint papers must meet the age criteria.

Scientific Committee

• Svend Albaek | EUI
• Marco Botta | EUI
• Giacomo Calzolari | EUI
• Beatriz Conde Gallego | Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition
• Josef Drexl | Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition
• Lapo Filistrucchi | University of Florence
• Niccolò Innocenti | University of Florence
• Pier Luigi Parcu | EUI
• Nicolas Petit | EUI
• Anna Pisarkiewicz | EUI 
• Maria Alessandra Rossi | University of Chieti Pescara – EUI 
• Giovanni Sartor | EUI TBC

EUI TBC Organizing Committee

• Niccolò Galli | EUI 
• Leonardo Mazzoni | EUI

Costs

The cost of participating in the conference is € 150, including an evening social event, meals and refreshments at the venue. Participants bear their travel and accommodation costs. For information about accommodation facilities and logistics issues, please write to Marsida Nence at digital.society(at)eui.eu.

Venue

Villa Schifanoia, European University Institute, Via Giovanni Boccaccio 121, Florence, Italy (on Google Maps)

Contact

For further information about submissions and the programme, please contact niccolo.galli(at)eui.eu.