Research About The Protection Of Intellectual Property In The Parallel Import

With the protection of intellectual property was strengthened more and more, the problem about parallel import becomes prominently hot in the area of international commerce. Accordingly, the conflict between free transaction of commodities within the whole world and the international protection of intellectual property becomes more and more intensified. How to deal with such a problem now is an urgent task for legal researchers in most of countries. There are many different opinions among the academics on this problem. The statutes on it in many different countries have little in common, and even some countries have no related legislation at all. Also the international treaties on the protection of intellectual property keep silence on this problem. The disputes on parallel import only appeared in Chinese international trade area after Asian Financial Crisis. In addition, the disputes between businessmen of parallel import and civil intellectual property holders will be much more in that according to the promises in entering into WTO, China is planning to reduce barriers to trade to a great extent and thus much more commodities with low price will be sent into the Chinese market by way of parallel import. So far there is no legislation to regulate it in China, therefore how to define parallel import by law and how to deal with the disputes between dealers of parallel important and owners of intellectual property are significant and difficult problems which the legal researchers, legislators and judiciaries are facing.First, the start point is of the dissertation is to parallel import in international trade. The aim is to give a scientific definition of parallel import and its accurate classification, give an explanation to the origin of parallel import and legal characteristics, and then propose some new issues brought by parallel import in protecting intellectual property. Secondly, to make a further argument on intellectual property and its characteristics in parallel import in respects of both economics and jurisprudence. Thirdly, to make a comparison of related legislation and judicial practice on parallel import in various intellectual property areas in developed countries, and some related provisions in international treaties as well. Fourthly, toprovide legal solutions to the core problem based on the Chinese own practical situations and the advisable experiences from other countries.