Brexit: changes ahead for exhaustion of rights
Until the UK joined the EU and the common market was enforced, the UK largely followed the concept of international exhaustion of rights. This meant that if goods were put on the market anywhere in the world with the rights owner’s consent, then the rights owner could not prevent the onward sale of those goods anywhere in the world.
However, during the 1970s, the regional exhaustion of rights principle was developed by the European courts to prevent the use of industrial property rights dividing the common market.
The principle has since been incorporated into national and EU laws by section 12 of the UK Trade Mark Act 1994; and article 7 of the EU Trade Marks Directive (2008/95)
The combination of unitary EU IP rights and harmonised national IP provisions creates what is known in some circles as ‘Fortress Europe’.
Section 12 of the Trade Mark Act 1994 is derived from article 7 of the directive and is largely identical. It states the current rules on the exhaustion of rights of trademarks in the UK:
