Pat Treacy
Pat Treacy is a partner in the Competition team at Bristows LLP.
Pat has specialised in EU law and competition law for almost 30 years and has been involved in landmark cases at EU and national level. In addition to her expertise across the range of competition law, she has particular strengths in advising on the complex legal and policy issues arising where competition law and intellectual property law intersect. Consequently, clients in high technology sectors including life sciences and TMT seek her advice regularly.
Pat represents clients before the competition authorities and the courts, whilst also advising on competition law issues in complex agreements (including settlement, R&D and licensing agreements). Pat advises many of the Firm's clients on the competition law responsibilities affecting dominant companies.
She and her team assist clients with competition compliance programmes and preparation for "dawn raids".
Pat is a member of the Competition Law Association; the British Institute of International and Comparative Law; and the Antitrust section of the American Bar Association. She is on the editorial board of the Journal of Intellectual Property Law and Practice. Pat lectures and writes widely on topical issues. She also teaches the competition law module on the University of Oxford Postgraduate Diploma in Intellectual Property Law and Practice course.
Practice Areas
Panel
- Contributing Author
Qualified Year
- 1986
Education
- MA Law, University of Cambridge
3 Contributions by Pat Treacy
PRACTICE NOTES
EU competition law and copyright exploitation: Articles 101/102 TFEU, exhaustion, territorial restrictions, geo-blocking, collective management and dominance abuses
What is copyright?
Copyright safeguards the author’s original expression of ideas, not the ideas themselves. It does not hand the copyright owner a monopoly. Consequently, works that are alike or even identical may lawfully coexist provided they are not unauthorised reproductions. In the EU and the UK, protection arises automatically and requires no registration.
In general, copyright protects original:
musical, dramatic, literary and artistic works (all of which must be fixed in some form)
sound recordings
films
typographical arrangements of published editions and broadcasts
databases (which may fall under a database right or copyright)
source code, user code and preparatory design material, and in some cases a user interface, logic, algorithms or programming languages
Exhaustion of rights and parallel trade within the EEA Existence v exercise
At the heart of the EU’s approach are rules securing the free movement of goods between Member States. Article 34 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union prohibits obstacles to cross-border trade in goods within the internal market. Article 36 TFEU permits a departure from Article 34 where such restrictions safeguard IP rights. However, this exception will...
EU Law
PRACTICE NOTES
EU IoT legal issues: telecoms, APIs, IP and SEPs, standards/interoperability, competition, consumer rights, product safety/liability, accessibility, contracting (excluding data protection and cybersecurity)
The Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of Things refers to everyday items—not just conventional computing kit like laptops and mobiles—connected to the internet. Related terms include connected devices, smart objects, the internet of services, machine‑to‑machine (M2M) technology, sensor networks, the network of networks, and pervasive or ubiquitous computing. IoT covers objects as varied as running shoes, buildings, cars, fridge‑freezers and drones. With embedded technology, these items can interact and share data online with one another, the user, the service provider and/or their environment, and they can be monitored and controlled remotely.
This Practice Note introduces IoT technology in the EU and considers:
The technology underpinning the IoT
Identifying the legal issues
Application programming interfaces (APIs)
Telecommunications and electrical equipment
Intellectual property—overview
Intellectual property ownership and licensing issues
Competition law
Consumer protection
Product safety and liability
Compliance requirements
The appropriate contracting model
Additional legal issues
This Practice Note does not address data protection, privacy or cyber security. These are covered separately in Practice Note: Internet of things...
EU Law
PRACTICE NOTES
Internet of Things: telecoms and electrical equipment regulation, APIs, IP and SEPs/FRAND, competition, consumer and product safety/liability, contracting and future issues—excluding data protection (UK and EU)
The Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of Things (IoT) describes everyday items—beyond laptops and smartphones—connected to the internet. Related terms include connected devices, smart objects, the internet of services, machine-to-machine (M2M), sensor networks, the network of networks, and pervasive or ubiquitous computing. IoT applies to running shoes, buildings, cars, fridge-freezers and drones. With embedded technology, such items exchange data and interact online with each other, the user, the service provider and/or their environment, and can be monitored and controlled remotely. This Practice Note introduces IoT and considers:
the technology underlying the IoT
identifying the legal issues
application programming interfaces (APIs)
telecommunications and electrical equipment
intellectual property—overview, ownership and licensing
competition law
consumer protection
liability and fault
compliance requirements
the appropriate contracting model
future legal issues
This Practice Note does not cover data protection, privacy or cybersecurity; these are addressed separately in Practice Note: Internet of...
TMT
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