Introduction
The RF Constitutional Court provided a new interpretation of the principle of exhaustion of trademark rights and parallel importations in its Judgement dated February 13, 2018 following a complaint filed by the Russian entity OOO “PAG”. The latter contested the constitutionality of the RF Civil Code provisions which establish the principle of national exhaustion of trademark rights and civil liability for parallel importers along with other legal consequences. The Judgement now allows the Courts to deny the application of the consequences of parallel importation in cases where the unfair behavior of the trademark holder may threaten the public interest. Moreover, the Judgement prohibits the imposition of civil sanctions for parallel importations of unlawfully imitated goods. We provide below a general overview of the case, the Russian exhaustion principle and the Judgement…
