Legal Issues Of Trademark Parallel Imports

The parallel import of trademark, or to be more precise, the parallel import of trademark products, deals with both international trade and intellectual property areas. The research and discussion about the parallel import of trademark has been conducted in many countries for more than a century, especially among western theorists. However, due to the basic national condition as a developing country, there was little chance for our country to carry on the parallel import transaction. As a result, the relevant laws and regulation are not clear, meanwhile, the theoretical studies are not deep enough.The problem of parallel import has become more and more obvious in the world under the development of economic globalization and multilateral trading system. China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) has been more than ten years, and the commitment to a substantial reduction of tariff barriers has been gradually achieved. The excellent performance of China in the two financial crises in 1998 and 2007 has also confirmed the status of Chinese economic power, while it means that China will continue to increase parallel imports. Based on the popularity of international flow of goods under the trademark packaging, parallel import of trademark will become a prominent issue. As a result, how to identify the nature of the issue of trademark in parallel importation and how to resolve the issue in practice will become a challenge in front of the academia, legislative and judicial branches.The thesis is focused on the issue of parallel import of trademark, which is divided into five parts.Chapter one inserts the issue of trademark in parallel importation through actual cases. This chapter also describes the confusion existing in our country’s parallel import transactions.Chapter two analyses the concept of this issue, and then describes its characteristics, forms of expression and the causes, which set a scope for the subsequent discussion. Chapter three concentrates on the major theories of this issue, which provides the theoretical foundation for the legality of trademark in parallel importation and the construction of laws.Chapter four studies the policies of countries to this issue through comparative approach. The chapter focuses on legislation and judicial practice in international treaty, the United States, Europe and Japan, which may enlighten our country’s legislation.Chapter five discusses the problem of trademark in parallel importation under the China’s current legal environment. China has already had parallel import transactions, but we don’t have special legislation of this issue. From our national conditions, the thesis proposes that different types of parallel import of trademark should be permitted with reasonable restrictions, and gives the legislative advices on the related issues.