"Foreword" [2016] ELECD 835; in Calboli, Irene; Lee, Edward (eds), "Research Handbook on Intellectual Property Exhaustion and Parallel Imports" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2016) xv

Book Title: Research Handbook on Intellectual Property Exhaustion and Parallel Imports

Editor(s): Calboli, Irene; Lee, Edward

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781783478705

Section Title: Foreword

Number of pages: 2

Extract:

Foreword


The principle of exhaustion is a well-established concept in the intellectual property laws
of the member states of the World Trade Organization (WTO). By means of explicit leg-
islative provisions or judicial precedents, most countries use the principle of exhaustion
to limit the rights of intellectual property owners and to advance diverse public policy
objectives. For example, some countries rely on this principle to regulate competition in
the domestic marketplace and to enhance consumer welfare; other countries invoke the
concept of exhaustion as a mechanism to promote trade and the free movement of goods.
Typically, governments will adapt national laws on exhaustion to pursue some combina-
tion of these goals.
Today, however, there is still no international consensus concerning a uniform policy
justification for the principle of exhaustion, nor is there any consensus about uniform
rules to be adopted either for exhaustion in general or even for specific applications
of this doctrine to patents, trademarks, copyrights, and related intellectual property
regimes.
In particular, two diverging paradigms continue to influence opposing views about the
exhaustion of intellectual property rights. One is the free trade paradigm--implemented
under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT 1994) and the General
Agreement on Trade in Services--which supports a system of international exhaustion.
Another is the independence of intellectual property rights paradigm--embodied in the
Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property and the Berne Convention
for the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works--which has been invoked to defend ...