On Applying The First Sale Doctrine To The Copyright Parallel Import

The first sale doctrine and the copyright parallel import are the two sides of a issue. A nation who approves the non-geographical reading of the first sale doctrine allows the parallel import, on the contrary, if the first sale doctrine only applies to the domestic manufactured copyright works, then the importers cannot import these works without copyrighter’s authorization. What kind of attitude to take is not only a legal theoretical problem, but a policy issue as well. China is a great developing power on intellectual property, and the trade of copyright is prosperous, as a result, the parallel import is increasingly emerging at the same time. But both the existing acts and the latest draft revision of the copyright law have no rules on the first sale doctrine or copyright import,and related studies are not in-depth enough. Facing the increasingly booming copyright trade, it is necessary for us to make a prospective study.This article focuses on the U.S. juridical practice, makes a theoretical study on the first sale doctrine and analyses the elements which influences the first sale doctrine’s application. Providing the reference on how are we going to deal with the copyright exhaustion and parallel import issues.The first chapter of this article introduces the background information and makes clear about the concepts, theories of the first sale doctrine and the types of the copyright import. Starting with the study of U.S. juridical practice, the second chapter analyses the establishment and development of the first sale doctrine under the U.S. copyright law, the two issues on the application of the first sale doctrine to parallel import and the ways how the courts dealt with them in U.S. The third chapter mainly analyses the latest development of the first sale doctrine’s application:Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley&Sons, Inc., discusses the way how the supreme court of U.S. applied first sale doctrine to this case and what factors influenced its application. The fourth chapter summarizes the enlightenment which the supreme court of U.S. gave for our country. Based on it, this article indicates that our country need to fully realizes the pros and cons of the non-geographical and geographical first sale doctrine when dealing with the copyright exhaustion and parallel import issues and fully considers the global trade liberalization, the current situation of the copyright development and trade, allowing the copyright parallel import. Based on it, our country should consummate the first sale doctrine legislation.