Within the framework of its cooperation with US-based firm Qualcomm, TILEC sponsors a grant competition to provide funding for legal and economic research on the interplay between innovation, intellectual property and competition policy. See the call for proposals. Up to three scientists (or teams) will be provided with 15,000 euros each to generate new, policy-relevant findings. The results will be presented at a workshop on the issue, which will take place in Tilburg next Fall. The recent Microsoft judgment by the European Court of First Instance once again underlined the need for progress in this area. Indeed, legal doctrine traditionally puts
forward intellectual property rights as the just reward for the efforts of an inventor. A more sophisticated view, influenced by economics, presents them as devices designed to foster the production of useful information. At the same time, in competition law, intellectual property rights are usually viewed with suspicion, given that they can give rise to monopolies, with the risk of abusive conduct. With innovation now being on top of the policy agenda, those traditional views have to be re-assessed. The grant competition is meant to kick-start this process.
