Antitrust Law and Innovation Cooperation

Abstract

Should innovation collaboration among high technology firms be subject to the antitrust laws? My own analysis concludes that innovation collaboration, particularly when it encompasses production and marketing, can create anticompetitive risks, and should be subject to the antitrust laws. It appears unlikely that actual antitrust enforcement inhibits technological collaboration in any direct way because government enforcement is extremely permissive and no successful private cases have been brought in recent years. To the extent that misguided perceptions of antitrust risk may have discouraged some types of innovation collaboration, a few narrowly targeted reforms are sufficient to correct the problem.