Fiona Garside

This Checklist focuses on the intellectual property (IP) aspects of vertical agreements. It covers the key competition law considerations and considers the following issues: the parties to and structure of vertical agreements, identifying the IP, the scope of the licence, restricting the use of the IP, IP ownership, third-party IP, protection of licensor’s IP and warranties and indemnities.

This Checklist sets out the essential points that should be considered when drafting new Research and Development (R&D) agreements, or updating existing R&D agreements, to assess whether they fall within the EU R&D BER 2023 (Commission Regulation (EU) 2023/1066 on the application of Article 101(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU) to certain categories of research and developments agreements). This Checklist is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to the EU R&D BER 2023 but should be used where a commercial lawyer wants to ensure that an R&D agreement falls within the EU R&D BER 2023 and accompanying Horizontal Guidelines.