Flender/Flender Gear Units/Helical gearboxes H3
de regulation laws. They believe that the aive trend of mergers and acquisitions aggressive companies evident in Europe and Asia,

leading to economies of scale and lowering manufacturers' production costs, have not been replicated in the United States largely because

of domestic antitrust and trade regulation laws. Mergers and acquisitions of gear companies creating near monopolies are not legal in

the United States. .. gear firms believe that, even though certain laws regarding joint ventures have been relaxed over the

last several years, there is much need for improvement. It should be noted that, to encourage efficiency-enhancing research joint ventures, Congress passed the National Cooperative Research Act of 1. The act modifies antitrust liability for research joint ventures that register with the .. Department of Justice (Justice) and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). There are two ways that the act changes joint venture' liability. First, it codifies rule of reason style approach to analyzing research joint ventures. Under the act, to challenge the reasonableness of joint venture, enforcement agencies and courts must first establish anticompetitive effects from the joint venture. If effects such as collusion or other anticompetitive activities are found, they must be weighed against procompetitive factors, such as economies of scale in research. Second, the act limits the exposure to private antitrust suits of registered research joint ventures, and the maximum potential antitrust liability of these joint ventures is single (rather than treble) damages in any private antitrust proceeding: 1 According to an official with the FTC, 4 Langenfield and Scheffman, "Innovation and .. Competition," The Antitrust Bulletin, vol. 3, No. 1 (Spring , pp. 5-6. during November 1, the FTC approved legislation allowing for joint venture between GM and Chrysler for the purpose of producing manual automotive transmission gears. Th