Essential Facilities Doctrine on Intellectual Property Rights: A Comparison of the Approaches from the United States of America, the European Union and China

This article examines how the legislation and case law in the United States of America, the European Union and China approach the application of the essential facilities doctrine to intellectual property rights. The doctrine originates from U.S. antitrust law cases involving the refusal to give access to facilities deemed as essential for guarantying an effective competition in the market. The application of the essential facilities doctrine to intellectual property rights is still controversial though, and this article aims to demonstrate how the abovementioned jurisdictions have been accessing the topic, and also which challenges may arise from the adoption of the doctrine in the field of intellectual property rights.