Supreme Court Parallel Importation Ruling Could Impact U.S. Trade Policy

摘要

The Supreme Court this week issued a ruling on the topic of "parallel importation" that could have a direct impact on U.S. trade policy, including in the ongoing Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) negotiations, legal observers said this week. Parallel importation refers to the act of importing a legitimately produced copyrighted good into the U.S. market that was meant for sale in a foreign market, and is of critical importance for online sellers like eBay. Under U.S. law, the buyer of a good in the United States is allowed to resell it, which exhausts the copyright holder's right to control the distribution of the item. Prior to the Supreme Court ruling, however, it was unclear whether this "first sale" doctrine applied to sales of an item abroad; that is, it was unclear whether a U.S. good that is sold in a foreign market - either because it was exported from the U.S. or it was produced in the foreign country for sale there - could be legitimately shipped back to the U.S. to be resold in the U.S. market.