Portugal. Intellectual Property and Antitrust

In Portugal, the main legal framework regulating competition law matters is the Portuguese Competition Act (the Competition Act), which was last revised in 2012 and further amended in 2022 by Law No. 17/2022. The main legal instrument regulating intellectual property (IP) is the Industrial Property Code (IPC), which was last revised in January 2021. The relevant European Union (EU) regulations, including EU Regulations No. 2022/720 (the Vertical Block Exemption Regulation (VBER)), No. 2023/1066 (the R&D agreements), No. 2023/1067 (the specialisation agreements) and No. 316/2014 (the Technology Transfer Block Exemption (TTBER)), are directly applicable in Portugal. Additionally, the Portuguese Competition Authority (AdC) and national courts may also rely on approaches included in the European Commission (EC) guidelines, as well as in the case law and decision practice at the EU level.

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