Current problems of trademark exhaustion in foreign court practice

Abstract

The author analyzes the principle of trademark exhaustion in the European Union. The institution of trademark exhaustion is a form of legal limitation of the subjective right of the trademark owner. EU member states have a national trademark protection system. On the other hand, a supranational trademark protection system was established in the EU, through which, among other things, there was introduced a system of regional trademark exhaustion. In the paper, the Institute of trademark exhaustion will be analyzed through the latest practice of the EU Court of Justice. Namely, when the owner of the trademark or a third party, with his consent, puts the goods marked with the trademark on the market in the European Economic Area, the exhaustion of the trademark occurs. This means that the owner of the trademark cannot prevent the further circulation of these goods. However, it often happens that the goods are purchased in one country, where the goods were first sold by the trademark owner, and then being sold in another country. According to the significant differences in the prices of medical and pharmaceutical products in different EU countries, there is a significant market for the so-called parallel import of such goods. Recent case law of the Court of Justice of the European Union has clarified how the provisions relating to the packaging and repackaging of medicinal products should be interpreted and applied in the context of parallel trade in pharmaceutical products within the EU.