Parallel Imports of Patented Goods

Parallel Imports of Patented Goods
Christopher Heath, Boards of Appeal, EPO, Munich

978-94-035-0330-1
Kluwer Law International BV, The Netherlands

This chapter looks at patent exhaustion regimes in the context of international trade. Although one might have expected that one of the major concerns of the WTO Agreement would have been to define the concept of legitimate trade for goods lawfully marketed in one country and subsequently exported to others, no definition of this core question for international trade could be agreed upon. ‘Legitimate trade’ thus remains a controversial concept in this area.