Features

BERKELEY — The Federal Trade Commission and the Antitrust Division of the Department of Justice are holding four joint hearings at the University of California at Berkeley, which began on Monday, to field testimony on issues of patents and competition. 

The university's Haas School of Business is hosting the hearings, which run until Thursday.  

They are part of a national series of hearings being held under the theme “Competition and Intellectual Property Law and Policy in the Knowledge-Based Economy.” 

The hearings will allow members of academia and business to present their experiences to the commission, as it tries to develop a better understanding of how to balance issues of antitrust law with intellectual property policies. 

Thirteen UC Berkeley professors are among those who are expected to testify in the hearings, including Chairman of the Competition Policy Center Joseph Farrell and Director of the Institute of Business and Economics Research Carl Shapiro. 

In the past, both Shapiro and Farrell have served the Department of Justice's Antitrust Division as deputy assistant attorneys general for economic analysis. 

The hearings, which are open to the public, are divided into several categories and topics, including economic perspectives on intellectual property, competition and innovation. 

Other sections of the hearing will allow representatives from several fields of business and commerce -- biotechnology businesses, pharmaceutical companies, software firms, Internet merchants, and those who make hardware and semiconductors -- provide business perspectives on patents.