First Results of the Lab’s Research for the Eurasian Economic Commission Presented

On December 15 Alexey Ivanov made a report at the Working Group of the Eurasian Economic Commission that was set up to study and analyze the economic factors affecting the selection of a specific regime for the exhaustion of exclusive rights and, accordingly, turnover from foreign products - parallel import.

Alexey presented the main conclusions of the first stage of research in the context of the international legal obligations of Russia and WTO rules. Into the specialist proces experts in the fields of intellectual property, antitrust and global trade regulation were involved, under the supervision of Laboratory Head Alexey Ivanov.

The researches came to the conclusion that the only exhaustion regime that corresponds with the WTO rules is the international regime for the exhaustion of exclusive rights that allows free turnover of products that were put into circulation legally on the territory of any country. At the same time, WTO regulations doesn’t define specifically an exhaustion regime, but set up some requirements regarding trade barriers and global trade limitations what directly refers to the parallel imports nature. There are no 'pure' nternational exhaustion regimes; national economies normally use exemptions. 

Please find the report on Slideshare.