In March, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, 133 S.Ct. 1351 (2013), where it held that the copyright "first sale" doctrine applies to items manufactured and sold abroad by the copyright owner. The decision makes it harder for intellectual property owners to control importation of "grey goods"items manufactured abroad by the owner or its licensees, and then imported into the United States to take advantage of better pricing here. However, there remain a number of strategies for controlling such importation and resale.
‘Kirtsaeng’ Decision
The facts in Kirtsaeng are illustrative of a typical grey goods scenario. John Wiley & Sons is a publisher of English-language academic textbooks. It obtains the rights to copyright in the text, graphics, etc. from various authors and designers, so it owns all copyrights in the books. U.S. versions are published and sold in this country. Foreign versions are generally printed, published and sold in Asia. The Asian versions are of lesser quality, and bear a legend that state that their sale is only authorized outside the United States.
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