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Stefano Barazza is a lawyer at Studio Legale Barazza, in Italy. The technology transfer realized through the licensing of intellectual property rights represents the key to the diffusion of innovation in the industry, which allows the creation of new and improved products, with beneficial effects for innovators, manufacturers and consumers. Although they generally give rise to significant efficiencies and pro-competitive effects, technology transfer agreements may also contain restrictions capable of affecting the competition in the relevant product and technology markets, such as exclusive licensing, exclusive grant-back provisions, price restraints, and non-challenge clauses. In the European Union, the Commission has progressively refined its approach towards the assessment of the compatibility of technology transfer agreements with Article 101 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), currently disciplined by Regulation 772/2004 and by the Guidelines on the application of Article 81 of the EC Treaty to technology transfer agreements. A recent reform proposal seeks to maintain the principles enshrined in the existing legislation, introducing appropriate changes to improve the protection of the undertakings involved and to dissipate the risks of anti-competitive effects on the relevant markets.
S. Barazza (Thu,) studied this question.