JURISDICTIONAL OVERLAPS/CONFLICTS BETWEEN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS (IPR)AND COMPETITION LAW

The question of appropriate jurisdiction of a court or tribunal lies at the forefront of every dispute. The adjunction over jurisdiction becomes more important when the statues require a sagacious interpretation to provide a solution. Jurisdiction is “the legal right by which judges exercise their authority1 ‖ It exists when a court has cognizance of class of cases involved, proper parties are present and the point to be decided is within the powers of the court. The question of appropriate jurisdiction arises when a matter involves two laws or rather two conflicting or overlapping laws. This article attempts to deal with the conflict of jurisdictions when a case involves Intellectual property rights and competition law2 . First, the article provides brief background on tension between Competition laws and IPR.It argues that the functioning of each of the two legal regimes might be separate, however, at the backdrop of each of their respective objectives, the main aim of both such regimes is to create consumer welfare and foster innovation Second it talks about how US, EU and India have dealt with the jurisdictional overlap when a matter involves IP and competition interface. It ends with a picture that could be endeavored by jurisprudence of different jurisdictions in search of the appropriate forum and put forth the suggestions to deal with the situation especially in India due to the lack of jurisprudence.