Importation without permission from intellectual property owner
A parallel import is a non-counterfeit product imported from another country without the permission of the intellectual property owner. Parallel imports are often referred to as grey product and are implicated in issues of international trade, and intellectual property.[1]
Parallel importing is based on concept of exhaustion of intellectual property rights; according to this concept, when the product is first launched on the market in a particular jurisdiction, parallel importation is authorized to all residents in the state in question.[2] Some countries allow it but others do not.[3]
Parallel importing of pharmaceuticals reduces price of pharmaceuticals by introducing competition; TRIPS agreement in Article 6 states that this practice cannot be challenged under the WTO dispute settlement system and so is effectively a matter of national discretion.[4]
The practice of parallel importing is often advocated in the case of software, music, printed texts and electronic products, and occurs for several reasons:
Different versions of a product are produced for sale in different markets. For example, the UK edition of Top Gear Magazine is officially sold in the UK, and Top Gear Australia is officially sold in Australia. However, some unofficial distributors in Australia also sell the UK edition of Top Gear Magazine.
Companies, either the manufacturer or the distributor, set different price points for their products in different markets. Parallel importers ordinarily purchase products in one country at a price (P1) which is cheaper than the price at which they are sold in a second country (P2), import the products into the second country, and benefitting from arbitrage, sell the products in that country at a price which is usually between P1 and P2.
Consumers who are able to obtain more competitively priced items and may be able to avoid local sales taxes, are placed on an even footing with consumers who have less access to overseas sales online.[5]
Some advocacy groups support parallel importing on the grounds of enhancing the free flow of information.[6]
^Kyle C. Williams (28 January 2020). "Parallel Imports and the Principle of Exhaustion: The First Sale Rule in International Commerce". Penn State Journal of Law & International Affairs. Retrieved 23 September 2021.
^"Parallel Imports/Gray Market". www.inta.org. Retrieved 6 June 2018.
A parallelimport is a non-counterfeit product imported from another country without the permission of the intellectual property owner. Parallel imports...
channel officially authorized by the manufacturer. The synonymous term parallelimport is sometimes substituted. Car makers frequently arbitrage markets,...
have no relationship with the producer of the goods. This form of parallelimport frequently occurs when the price of an item is significantly higher...
Stream is available through the authorised distributor and parallelimport. The parallelimport Stream was launched slightly earlier than from the authorised...
Toyota one. Sold as the Wish Aero Tourer to distinguish itself from the parallelimport Wish; additional, accessories such as a 5-piece bodykit inclusive of...
Australia and the Middle East. Smarties are not distributed (except via parallelimport) in the United States, where the rights to the name belong to the Smarties...
car can also be found in Hong Kong, Indonesia, and Singapore through parallelimports. The Sienta received a facelift on May 16, 2006, 3 years after its...
Import gamers are a subset of the video game player community that take part in the practice of playing video games from another region, usually from Japan...
Nominative use Disparagement Reputation parasitism Cybersquatting Parallelimport Well-known trademark Treaties Paris Convention Madrid Agreement Madrid...
Parallel trading in Hong Kong is the phenomenon of Chinese parallel traders taking advantage of multiple entry visa policy to import goods from Hong Kong...
suppositories, and injections. Marketing rights to the drug became subject to parallelimport litigation in Europe in the case of Speciality European Pharma Ltd...
Kong; second facelift) In Singapore, the Freed is available through parallelimport distributors. The second generation Freed was revealed in June 2016...
mainland China, has been removed from online stores such as Taobao, but parallelimport copies continue to remain on sale. In the Wii game WarioWare: Smooth...
parallelimport. In May 2019 Fujifilm announced the discontinuation of Venus 800 in Japan with supply expected to last until December 2019. Parallel imports...
naturopathic favorites in compounded drugs". Science-Based Medicine. "Parallelimport (PI) licences granted in June 2015" (PDF). UK Government. "Nootropil...
translation Geo-blocking Modchip NTSC-C NTSC-J NTSC PAL region ParallelimportParallelimporting in video games Trusted Platform Module Vendor lock-in "Letters"...
area of 163 thousand square meters in the vicinity of Bishkek. m. for parallelimport of goods to Russia. As experts note, its appearance will increase the...
Norway–European Union relations Switzerland–European Union relations Parallelimport Schengen Agreement Societas cooperativa Europaea European Union Customs...
"Chevrolet Jimny" in Bogotá, Colombia. The Jimny is also available as a parallelimport in Singapore. In 2012, for the 2013 model year, the Jimny received...
obtained in 2003 by Fotoimpex of Berlin, Germany, a company founded in 1992 to import photographic films and papers from former eastern Europe. This included...
factory fitted one. It is also available as the Honda Grace through parallelimport, in both petrol and hybrid versions. Honda Taiwan first displayed the...
region with a number of Japan specific products sometimes available as Parallelimports. In March 2023, Fujifilm announced it was no longer taking orders for...
price of ¥139,000 Japanese Yen ($1267 US dollars) as a parallel-imported vehicle from the importers. In the UK, the CG125 was popular with learners due to...
name products, such as Pepsi and Walkers Crisps, which were often parallelimports. Netto (store) Salling Group Sainsbury's "Sainsbury's ends Netto discount...
Cimas were exported to other Asian countries such as Singapore by parallelimport. In 2022, production of the Cima, along with the Fuga, concluded, with...
Global Information