| Parallel Import means that, where an intellectual property has been under protection of the importing country and the intellectual property owner has manufactured or sold the intellectual property product or he has authorized others to do so, an unauthorized domestic importer may purchase the said products from the foreign intellectual property owner or his licensee, and may import and sell the said products domestically.The following features, with which an import may be generally regarded as Parallel Import, usually distinguish parallel Import: (a) The imported product is genuine product manufactured lawfully, not fake product; (b) The intellectual property relating to the imported product has been under protection in the importing country; (c) The importer imported the said product without permission from the domestic intellectual property owner; (d) Generally, the price of the imported product is lower than that sold by domestic intellectual property owner.With the first case concluded in 1886 in the U.S., parallel import is not a novel thing. Statistics indicate that, in 1988 foreign products totaling USD 0.7-1 billion entered the U.S. market through gray market channel, in another word, by means of parallel import. This fact gave rise to extensive concerns and debates in the legal profession of the U.S. In the U.S. and EU, books and articles discussing parallel import turn out to be inexhaustible, however no consensus has yet been reached among the legal profession. The debates are still going on and the standpoints from the legislature and judiciary keep changing all the time.In China, however, no law or regulation concerning parallel import is currently available, and parallel import remains a fresh concept to most domestic consumers. Since China's entry into the WTO, China's economy is integrating into the world economy even more deeply, and there will be more and more parallel import cases emerging in China. Under such circumstance, it is compulsory to further discuss on this problem with a broader and deeper view, to analyze and compare in-depth legislative and judicial changes of other countries on this problem, to summarize the objective laws and subjective intents underlying such changes, and finally to reach conclusions and policies that are compatible with China's situation.This article summarizes the author's research and study on issues relating to parallel import. In conclusion, the author argues that parallel import should be permitted with reasonable restrictions in trademark and copyright sectors of China, and it is not advisable to forbid parallel import with no reservation in patent sector. Forbidding parallel import with no reservation will merely impede development of China's economy and is not compatible with the international environment where countries are becoming much more permissive to parallel import. The author also calls for sufficient attention to parallel import issues from China's legislative and judicial authorities. Current legislative and judicial practices concerning parallel import in China should be re-examined so as to clarify standpoint of China's law to the parallel import issues. This paper has four chapters, with about 46,000 characters.In the first chapter, the author introduces parallel-import-related theoretical problems, i.e. the concept, characteristics and application scope of exhaustion of rights. First, the author mentions that the concept includes three aspects: legal rights, attached to specific products, in the cycle of circulation. Next the author analyses the relationship between parallel import and exhaustion of rights, esp. the problem of territoriality of exhaustion of rights. The author mentions three types of exhaustion of rights, i.e. domestic, international and regional exhaustion of rights. It follows with a discussion on the specific application of exhaustion of rights in the field of patent, trademark and copyright. The second chapter is concerned with new development of theories and practices of parallel import...
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