Balancing rights in the European Research Area: the case of ERICs (European Research Infrastructure Consortium)

Council Regulation 723/2009 on the Community Legal Framework for European Research Infrastructure Consortium (ERIC) provides for the inclusion of policies, including an intellectual property rights policy, in the statutes of ERICs. The manner in which research infrastructures with ERIC status have responded to this requirement varies. This paper reports findings of a preliminary study of the treatment of intellectual property rights in ERICs (2011- 2018). The tension between the existence of IPRs and their exercise is a familiar one in competition law; the paper suggests that the ‘fifth freedom’ imports this issue into the European Research Area and the balance of rights forms the backcloth of considerations of IPRs and ERICs.