Interoperabilitet på en digital marknad - En utredning ur ett konkurrens- och upphovsrättsligt perspektiv

Sammanfattning: Considered the technical evolution positive effects on economic growth there is reason to discuss the interests of copyright owners as well as competitors on the digital market. This essay studies the intersection of competition and copyright law on a digital market with focus on interoperability. In the Microsoft Corp case of 2007 competition and copyright law are considered where the latter gives way for competition law. This raises the question which interests the areas of law origin from and when one of them takes precedence in a proportionality assessment. Competition law contains few regulated objectives which allows it a certain flexibility. This is in favour of a fast-changing market with new technology. Some of the interests are specified and include the protection of costumers, economic growth and innovation. In the digital market the network effects are considered as well as the risk to develop so called lock-in effects in the digital ecosystems. Due to the lack of interoperability, consumers may find it difficult to switch product as well as ecosystem. Copyright protection origins from the incentive for innovation. The copyright protection has a high level of protection. Computer programmes are protected but with few exceptions, unlike the InfoSoc directive, for the benefit of interoperability. These exceptions are applied restrictively in practice. As a result, one can see a distinct interest in interoperability. At the same time there is a balance between the effects in competition and copyright law. Since these are conformed to some parts there are reasons to see them as complementary rules. An application of art. 102 TFEU should be carefully applied and only in certain circumstances.