This thesis examines the regulation of parallel imports of trade marked goods in the European Community (EC), demonstrates its deficiencies and advocates its amendment by the Community legislator. The thesis identifies as a primary characteristic of the regulation the bifurcation of intra-EC and extra-EC parallel importation, that is to say, the fundamental divergence of the regimes of parallel imports coming from another EC Member State and imports coming from third countries. The split as to the rationale, justification and outcome of the two regimes is so substantial that it is viewed as the existence of ‘parallel regulations on parallel trade’ in the Community. The study establishes four different manifestations of this bifurcation, the most evident one concerning the fact that while internal imports are lawful under EC law, external ones could be repelled by the mark owner as trade mark infringement. It is submitted that this variable legal tolerance to parallel trade has been legitimised through the Community rule of limited, regional exhaustion of trade mark rights and the manner in which the European Court of Justice has interpreted its application. Against this background, the thesis raises three groups of legal arguments for reviewing the current Community exhaustion policy and implementing a rule of international trade mark exhaustion. They relate to trade mark law, competition law and certain proclamations of the importance of free unrestricted global trade, made by the Community on international level and in the EC context as well. Finally, the study complements the above legal arguments with socio-economic justifications in support of international exhaustion. The research suggests that the Community should consider the implementation of international trade mark exhaustion and carry out the necessary preparatory steps outlined by the study in this regard.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:499643 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Marinova, Yona Georgieva |
| Publisher | University of Aberdeen |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Source | http://digitool.abdn.ac.uk:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?pid=25821 |
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