1. Straus, The present state of the patent system in the European Union. EUR 17014 EN, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg, 1997. The author is indebted to Professor Straus
2. Beier, F.-K, Industrial property and the free movement of goods in the internal European market, 21 IIC, The International Review of Industrial Property and Copyright Law, 131, Max Planck Society, 1990
3. Commission opinion of 4 April 1974 concerning the draft Convention for the European Patent for the Common Market and the Protocol annexed thereto relating to the deferred application of the provisions on the exhaustion of rights attached to Community Patents and national patents. Official Journal of the European Communities No. L 109/34 of 23 April 1974
4. TRIPS, in its Article 6, not only does not address the issue of worldwide exhaustion, but excludes exhaustion explicitly from the scope of the Agreement
5. Case 78/70, Deutsche Grammophon v Metro. In this case, not patents but another intellectual property right, namely copyright, was at issue. But the Court clearly held that “Article 36 mentions among the prohibitions of restrictions on the free movement of goods permitted by it those that are justified for the protection of industrial and commercial property. If it be assumed that a right analogous to copyright can be covered by these provisions it follows, however, from this Article that although the Treaty does not affect the existence of the industrial property rights conferred by the national legislation of a Member State, the exercise of these rights may come within the prohibitions of the Treaty. Although Article 36 permits prohibitions or restrictions on the free movement of goods that are justified for the protection of industrial and commercial property, it only allows such restrictions on the freedom of trade to the extent that they are justified for the protection of the rights that form the specific object of this property”