PATENT LAW AS A L EGAL MONOPOLY:
PRO ET CONTRA

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S.A. SINITSYN,
Doctor of Legal Sciences, Leading Researcher of the Institute
of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government
of the Russian Federation

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DOI: 10.24031/1992-2043-2019-19-4-145-170

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The rapid development of investment markets and highly liquid intellectual property
objects posed new challenges to legal regulation. The relationship between competition
law and legislation on exclusive rights to the results of intellectual activity has become
particularly acute, which is complicated by the dynamics of the development of these
areas of legal regulation. The author set out to consider the formation and development of
exclusive rights from a patent in relation to assessing the admissibility of its interpretation
as a legal monopoly. In the course and based on the results of the study, the absence
of any grounds, both practical and theoretical, was found that could provide science
and practice with the opportunity to look for similarities and differences in obviously
incomparable concepts – monopoly and exclusive law. The regime of any subjective law,
and in particular the rights from a patent, establishes freedoms and restrictions for the
copyright holder both in private and public interests, in connection with which there is
no need to consider the law in the meaning of legal monopoly. This understanding is also
applicable to patent law, the interpretation of patent law as a legal monopoly creates
obstacles for considering the patent holder in the dynamics of turnover as a market
participant, whose actions can adversely affect the competitive environment.

Keywords: patent law; legislation on competition and exclusive rights; concept and
types of monopolies.

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Information about the author

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Sinitsyn S.A. (Moscow, Russia) – Doctor of Legal Sciences, Leading Researcher
of the Institute of Legislation and Comparative Law under the Government of the
Russian Federation (34 Bolshaya Cheryomushkinskaya St., Moscow, 117218, Russia;
e-mail: synss@mail.ru).