Commentary on 'Tying and Intellectual Property

• Author: Richard F.D. Corley and Navin Joneja
• Pages: 246-254

246

Commentary on “Tying and Intellectual

Property”

Richard F.D. Corley and Navin Joneja1

A. INTRODUCTION

is paper addresses the issues raised by Iacobucci and Winter in their

paper on tying and intellectual property. It outlines their main theses

and responds to them. We agree with much of what they say.

At the outset, it should be noted that the policy criterion the auth-

ors use in their analysis is that of economic ef‌f‌iciency — the maximiza-

tion of total gains from a market, whether these gains are achieved by

consumers (in t he form of consumer surplus) or by shareholders of

f‌irms.

Using this standard, the authors conclude that tying is not ne-

cessarily harmful since t ying may, in many cases, increase ef‌f‌iciency.

Furthermore, t he authors note that it is dif‌f‌icult to categorize ty ing

 Richard Corley and Nav in Joneja are partners in the Compet ition Group at

Blake, Cassels & Gr aydon LLP. Richard Corley is al so co-Head of Blake’s In-

formation Technology Practice Group a nd assisted the Competition Bureau of

Canada in the development of t he Intellectual Property E nforcement Guide-

lines. We gratefully ack nowledge the assistance of Dela Avle in prepar ing these

comments.

 Edward Iacobucci and Ra lph Winter, “Tying and Intellect ual Property,” chapter

 in this book.