Battling over bricks; European competition law.(fight over copyright law in Europe)(IMS Health copyright case concerning brick data collection system)(Brief Article)
Economist (US), The, August, 2001
A growing row over intellectual-property rights
IN EARLY July, on the same day that he blocked General Electric's merger with Honeywell, Mario Monti, Europe's competition commissioner, also ruled on another interesting case. It involves IMS Health, an otherwise obscure gatherer of health-care information for drug companies. The case is controversial because it involves copyright laws that are already subject to painstakingly negotiated international agreements. Worse, it threatens an ugly row between the European Commission and national governments.
At the heart of the dispute is a method of data collection known as the "brick" system. Bricks are geographical blocks used to break down countries and cities into meaningful units for analysing sales of...
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