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Abstract

This chapter considers the law’s response to the challenge posed by the use of contract and technological protection measures (TPMs) as private ordering mechanisms in intellectual property. It considers the three (factual, legal, and contractual) levels of exclusivity on which private ordering may apply, and the different tools for intervening in private ordering that currently exist. It also highlights the inability of these tools to impose effective limits on private ordering by use of TPMs particularly, and considers the desirability and feasibility of new regulatory approaches based on the laws of consumer protection, IP, and unfair competition. The inflexibility and other shortcomings of such traditional regulatory mechanisms leads to a discussion of the possibility of alternative, self-regulatory mechanisms emerging, including the conditions required to that end, drawing on the experience of standard essential patents and collective rights management in copyright.