Horizontal Restrictions Related to Intellectual Property Licensing

The intensifying processes of digitalization of the economy lead to significant changes in market relations. Modern technologies not only create new market segments, but also radically change existing business models. Changes in economic relations must inevitably entail changes in their regulation. Antimonopoly legislation is one of the key instruments for regulating such relations. However, to what extent are the currently available provisions of Federal Law No. 135-FZ dated 26.07.2006 "On Protection of Competition" correspond to modern economic trends? Now there is a change in the structure of the market economy, in the nature of production. Manufacturers are trying to integrate artificial intelligence, machine learning, big data analysis, Internet of Things, blockchain, biometrics, and cloud computing into production processes. The so-called fintech companies appear on the market, bringing the seller and the buyer closer together by replacing the intermediary with a technological link. That is, intangible assets play a key role in entrepreneurial activity, which entails the need to adapt competition law to new realities. In this regard, one of the key issues related to bringing antimonopoly legislation in line with modern economic demands is the issue of regulating the turnover of intellectual property rights.On the basis of Article 1233 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation (hereinafter referred to as the Civil Code of the Russian Federation), the rightholder has the right to dispose of the exclusive right to the result of intellectual activity or a means of individualization through an alienation agreement or a license agreement. A license agreement, in contrast to an alienation agreement, is characterized by a temporary and restrictive nature of the transfer of the right to use intellectual property. Today, a license agreement is the most common type of agreement in the field of intellectual property turnover.However, in the national law, the prohibitions on abuse of dominant position and on the conclusion of agreements restricting competition do not apply to actions to dispose of intellectual property rights, including through the conclusion of a license agreement. Thus, the circulation of intellectual property objects has been removed from the sphere of antimonopoly legislation, which causes a lot of controversy. In this regard, the purpose of this work is to consider the issue of the need to extend competition rules to relations associated with the conclusion of agreements on licensing of intellectual property between business entities-competitors.