Parallel Imports And Trademark Products Related Legal Issues

Parallel Import, a matter concerning the Intellectual Property, also refers to the global trade & free competition. There is much legal conflict, in Parallel Import of trademark products, which includes whether or not it forms the trademark violation, it infringes the interests of consumers as unfair competition, as well as it leads to the conflict between holders and users of trademark. Therefore, it shall be discussed and studied on the legal issues arising from the Parallel Import from aspect of analyzing and research of Intellectual Property, regulationof international trade, safeguard of consumer' s interests, anti unfair competition, etc, so as to address such issues in a more scientific and reasonable way. This article shall hereby systemically review the Parallel Import of trademark products in all rounds.This article includes four sections.The first section thereof introduces the basic theory of Parallel Import of trademark products. Firstly, it refers to the definition, feature, behavior formation, origination and effect of Parallel Import of trademark products. Secondly, this section analyses the foundation of the theory of Parallel Import of trademark products and put special eyes on the determination to the conflict between the principle of right limitation & regionalism principle, the Individual interests & Public interests and the Trade liberalism & Nontariff barriers (NTBs). This section finally explains the reason of growing Parallel Import of trademark products in China.The second section, aims to make contributions to the settlement of issues that took place in China in Parallel Import of trademark products, compares the different regulations of Parallel Import of trademark products by way of reviewing the lawmaking and judicial practices thereof in different countries such as United States of America, European Union and Japan.The third section discusses the current issues, look back the judicial practices and lawmaking, and state the academic controversy of Parallel Import of trademark products in China. This section also indicates our country's current passive status without corresponding regulations.The last section of this article recommends a new idea that permission to the Parallel Import of trademark products with exceptional stipulation based on the review of our country' s current status, situation and global development trend, and advice to address the future issues arising from the Parallel Import of trademark products.