Antitrust Summit on Innovation and Competition Policy in High-Tech Markets

File Under: News

Oct 24, 2008

Antitrust Summit on Innovation and Competition Policy in High-Tech Markets
8:30 am - 2:30 pm

CCIA is pleased to announce an exciting antitrust and competition policy program for October 24 at the Newseum in Washington, DC. Join leading policymakers and trackers from academia, industry, and the public sector to address key topics aimed at understanding the immensely important role competition policy has played, is playing, and will play in our industry.  

In one way or another, many of our industry's most prominent companies have recently been publicly linked to competition policy issues, including but not limited to, AMD, Apple, AT&T, Comcast, Google, IBM, Microsoft, XM Radio, Verizon, and Yahoo. Summit panels have been designed to focus on the history of antitrust as it relates to the "new economy" markets, antitrust policy’s role in innovation, the intellectual property and antitrust interface, common characteristics of competition issues in our industry, and emerging issues in high-tech antitrust.  

8:30 am  Registration and Continental Breakfast

9:00 am   Welcome by CCIA President and CEO Ed Black

9:15 am   Panel #1: The History of Antitrust and High-tech Markets
This panel will examine the history and evolution of high-tech antitrust law in the courts, regulatory agencies, academia and Congress.  The resurgence of antitrust enforcement in the United States and the several high-profile cutting-edge antitrust cases receiving attention in venues throughout the world make an analysis of relevant history increasingly vital.  Some questions and issues the panel will explore include:

How has high-tech antitrust policy evolved in different venues, including the DOJ, FTC, EU and the courts?
What are the most important lessons to be learned from the IBM, AT&T and Microsoft cases?
Reactions to recent antitrust publications including the DOJ Section II report and the Antitrust Modernization Commissions Report.
How has the evolution of economic theory affected the development of “new economy” antitrust policy?

-  Ed Black (President and CEO, CCIA)
- Phil Malone (Director, Cyberlaw Clinic at Harvard Law and Department of Justice Antitrust Staffer)
- Jonathan Baker (Professor, American University Law School; Former Head of Federal Trade Commission Bureau of Economic; Former Senior Economist on President's Council of Economic Advisors; Former Deputy AG for Economics for Department of Justice Antitrust Division)
- Mozelle Thompson (Former Commissioner, Federal Trade Commission)
- Jonathan Sallet (Partner, Glover Park Group; Assistant to the Secretary and Director of the Office of Policy & Strategic Planning of the Department of Commerce)
- Jon Jacobson (Partner, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati; Member of the Antitrust Modernization Commission)

10:45 am   Panel #2: Antitrust, Intellectual Property and High-Tech Innovation
One of the most important and complicated areas of recent antitrust policy in innovation driven industries is the intellectual property - antitrust interface.  When functioning ideally, antitrust and IP law serve as important foils to one another.  When coupled with antitrust law, intellectual property law plays an instrumental role in stimulating innovation. The scope of IP rights has significant ramifications for New Economy industries. If IP rights are too narrow then firms may not be willing to make necessary—and often expensive—investments in research and development. If IP rights are too broad, then future innovation may be choked off by fear of frivolous infringement litigation.  This panel seeks to determine the right balance of antitrust and IP policy and its effect on innovation.  Some questions and issues the panel will explore include:

Does the expansion of IP rights necessitate reassessment of antitrust principles?
Are “innovation markets” more susceptible to single-firm conduct problems?  If so, why?
In the single-firm conduct context, is there tension between using antitrust law to keep prices low in the short run, and antitrust enforcement undermining incentives to become that first-mover in the long run?
High-tech industries – particularly Internet industries – are distinguished from other industries by a high level of interdependence, interoperation and network effects. Do these or any other factors make high-technology industries uniquely susceptible to antitrust problems? Is tech “different”?
Should we adjust competition policy to account for any increased susceptibility that high-tech markets may have, or can we assume that general antitrust law is competent to handle this?

-  Matt Schruers (Senior Counsel, CCIA)
- Susan DeSanti (Partner, Sonnenschein Nath & Rosenthal; Former Senior Staff Member at the Federal Trade Commission)
- William Cohen ( Deputy Policy Counsel, Federal Trade Commission)
- F. Scott Kieff (Professor, Washington University School of Law; Appointed to the Public Advisory Committee of the PTO; Law Clerk for Judge Giles Rich)
- Jonathan Gleklen (Partner, Arnold & Porter; Editorial Chair of the Antitrust Law Journal)
- Tod Cohen (VP and Deputy General Counsel of Worldwide Government Relations, eBay Inc.)

12:00 pm   Lunch Sponsored by

12:30 pm   Panel #3: The Future of Antitrust Enforcement and Emerging Issues
Our third and final panel seeks to explore the future of antitrust policy in cutting edge industries.  It will include assessments of the likely direction competition policy will evolve and more theoretical examinations on how it should evolve. Some questions and issues that will be examined by this panel include:

How antitrust policy and enforcement will be affected by the next administration?
How policy and enforcement will likely evolve in United States vis-à- vis Europe? Will other nations/entities rise in importance?
Antitrust and Convergence – How should competition policy be applied to the rapidly converging communications industry?  Network Neutrality as a competition issue?
An examination of emerging and ongoing cases of importance, including: Intel-AMD, Google-Yahoo, IBM mainframe market, Google – Doubleclick, Rambus case and FTC appeal and many others.

-  David Balto (Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress; Former Policy Director for the Bureau of Competition at the Federal Trade Commission and attorney advisor to Chairman Pitofsky)
- David Turetsky (Partner/Co-Chair of Antitrust Practice at Dewey & LeBeouf; Former Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Civil and Regulatory Affairs in the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice)
- Jon Orszag (Senior Managing Director and co-founder, Compass Lexecon; Former Clinton Administration Economic Policy Adviser)
- Jeff Blattner (Former Senate Judiciary Counsel; Former Deputy Assistant AG for Department of Justice Antitrust Division)
- Sean Gates (Partner, Morrison & Foerster; Former Deputy Assistant Director at the Federal Trade Commission)
- Dana Wagner (Competition Counsel, Google)
- Robert Rosenfeld (Partner, Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP)

When: Friday, October 24, 2008 8:30 am – 2:30 pm. Continental breakfast and lunch (provided by AMD) will be served.

Where: Knight Conference Center (Rooms 705/706), The Newseum, 555 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, DC

Cost:  Private Sector - $100
 Non-profits/academics - $50
 Public sector – no charge
 CCIA members – no charge