On Legislation For Parallel Import Of Trademark

Parallel import of trademark is becoming a very important issue in the process of global economic integration . Parallel import of trademark is not merely a question of intellectual property, because it is closely related to the law of the importer's country and therefore reflecting the country's foreign trade policy and often used as one way of tariff wall .Then what is parallel import of trademark? And why is it restrained by the importer's country?Parallel import of trademark is, in international trade, a practice of importing of the same kind of legal products bearing the same trademark without permission from the owner and user of the same trademark in his own country. Parallel import of trademark is possible due to developed countries' tariff reduction to an average of 4% after rounds of GATT talks and establishment of WTO. Taking advantage of the natural resources and cheap labour, developing countries are able to produce the same kind of goods at much lower cost and enter developed countries' market in the framework of free trade for a market share .This will damage the developed countries' own industry .So the industry in developed countries are all against parallel import of trademark .To protect their own industry ,developed countries set up appropriate non-tariff walls including ban to parallel import of trademark .But because goods imported through such channel is good , cheap and legal product ,not of poor quality, they are not only popular with consumers, but also good to importer's country's economic prosperity. With both advantages and disadvantages ,the legality of parallel import of trademark is questioned . Therefore, whether to permit parallel import of trademark is actually how to find a balance between interests of both trademark owners and consumers, interest conflicts of individuals and the public, free trade and non-tariff wall. To approach the legality, the theories are developed : Right exhaustion principle and Region principle .Advocates of Region principle are against parallel import of trademark ,which ,they declare ,is a violation of right of the owner of the trademark in the importer's country and therefore bad to the normal development of their national industry. Those believing in Right exhaustion principle are for such import.They declare only one use of right by owner. That is to say, trademark owner has lost its right after permission of one sale of the good and now has no right to interfere in resale by others .Though internationally accepted as a principle for intellectual property, people have different understanding of Right exhaustion principle in the extent. Generally speaking , there are three sub exhaustion principles : domestic exhaustion, regional exhaustion and international exhaustion . Countries have adopted their mechanism of trademark right exhaustion according to their legal systems and economy strategies. For example, European Economy Community adopted regional principle ,that is ,right exhaustion in EEC. As required by global economic development, International exhaustion principle will play an important role in free trade.There is neither definite international rule as to parallel import of trademark, nor uniform international laws. And existing agreements and conventions only provide countries the lowest standard for legislation on trademark protection . The actual protection depends on member countries' own laws. Different rules based on their own national situations have been used by the developed countries and regions such as The United States ,Britain, European Union, Japan and so on . For example , the United States has written parallel import of trademark into its international trade law , in clauses 526 and 337 of Tariff law issued by the Congress, and clause 133 of the Federal law. The United States, bans, in principle, parallel import of trademark yet with the exception of obtainment of written permission by US trademark owner and goods imported are not substantially different from domestic goods and the importer is related to the tra...