Trademark Parallel Import Law

Parallel imports of trademark concerns intellectual property and international trade. How to tackle parallel imports of trademark and how to define the trademark infringement has been a important issue of the international property law academic circle all the time. Though appearing recently in China, it represents a rising trend obviously with the world economic integration trend. The present laws about the parallel imports of trademark are still inefficient and there are no a unified clear rule to follow in all the world. For this reason, it is very urgent to legislate and shoulder heavy responsibilities.Parallel imports of trademark is sales behavior from other countries to import the same legal channels and brand goods without their owner of trademark exclusive rights or permission. Considering the contradictions of the two basic principle in the parallel import of trademark field, conflicts of interest among subjects; the countries all over the world were at sixes and sevens from their own interests, always can’t reach a consensus, and that the countries have been changing attitude about parallel imports of trademark with the development of history, consequently it will be a big challenge in the field of trademark parallel import legislation and judiciary. It has very important practical significance to how to regulate parallel imports of trademark better and balance the interests all parties.This thesis introduces the basic theories of parallel import of trademark and analyses them in detail. By force of study on legislative and judicial practice of major countries and regions, suggestions are summed up on how to deal with the parallel import of trademark which would be profitable for China. It consists of four chapters:Chapter Ⅰ explains the basic theory of parallel import of trademark, describes the cause, conception, characteristics and forms, so that the readers can understand the connotation of the parallel import of trademark.Chapter Ⅱ mainly analyzes all kinds of contradictions in the field of trademark parallel import and the solving method, namely contradiction between the trademark protection and free competition, conflict of interest among the importers, owners of trademark in importing country and consumers, divergence between exhaustion of right and principle of territoriality along with balance of interest.Chapter Ⅲ introduces the parallel import of trademark through the relevant cases and states the legislation and judicial practice of U.S. European Union and Japan regarding to parallel import of trademark issue, which has a very important guide in our legislation and judicial practice.Chapter IV puts forward some legislation recommendations on problems arising from the parallel import of trademark along with judicial cases in our country, based on the analysis in the previous three chapters.