How to Identify: Antitrust

Antitrust refers to legislation preventing or controlling trusts or other monopolies, with the intention of promoting competition in business.  Therefore, from an antitrust perspective, the identification of the scopes of protection for intangibles may be more important than the identification of specific intangibles. The way certain patents or copyrights are written can cover such a broad scope of protection that they may violate a jurisdiction's antitrust laws.  For example, if a patent for a social networking site included broad wording such that it covered and protected the exclusive use of a method of accessing members' information, this could be considered a deterrent for competition and in turn violate antitrust laws.  Antitrust law is primarily enforced by governments and governmental organizations and as such, utilise the identification process of intangibles primarily to preserve a competitive global environment in all industries.