Intellectual property is an exclusive civil right, which, like ownership, has the characteristics of exclusiveness and absoluteness. But at the same time, in order to prevent this monopoly from becoming an obstacle to social progress and development, the intellectual property system not only protects the exclusive rights of creators, but also imposes necessary restrictions on them to coordinate the interests of creators, communicators and users representing social interests. The exhaustion system of intellectual property rights is a typical system to restrict exclusive rights.
For example, when the patented product imported by the patentee is sold, if anyone resells the purchased product, it is not considered as patent infringement. That is, when the buyer legally purchases the patented product, the patentee's right to the patented product is exhausted.
The principle of exhaustion of rights and the nature of intellectual property rights;
The principle of exhaustion of rights has different contents in copyright law, trademark law and patent law, but it has certain * * *. To sum up, there are the following points:
Particularity of exhaustion of rights clause
The exhaustion of intellectual property rights refers to the exhaustion of specific rights, not the exhaustion of ownership. The first thing that is exhausted is not personal rights, but property rights; Secondly, it is not the property right, patent right or trademark right of the work itself that is exhausted, but its sub-item, that is, the specific rights related to the sale or use of the product in the right group. [iii] The exhaustion right is a specific right related to the circulation of goods and the use of buyers, which is clearly stipulated by law. In Professor Zheng's words, "exhaustion of exclusive rights" only means that the obligee has lost the exclusive right to sell his works. [4]
Exhausting the specificity of the object
The so-called specificity of the object of exhaustion of rights means that exhaustion of rights is aimed at every specific product legally put into the market, not all products in the same category or series, and it will not lead to the suspension of the effectiveness of intellectual property itself. The obligee still enjoys the exclusive right to the products that have not been put on the market or illegally put on the market, and no one may copy the knowledge products without permission.
Specificity of exhaustion range
The exhaustion of intellectual property rights has regional characteristics. Generally speaking, the right holder's putting his intellectual property products in one country will not lead to the exhaustion of his products in other countries. Therefore, the obligee still has the right to prohibit others from importing products with intellectual property rights without permission. For example, the Austrian copyright law stipulates: "If the author only agrees to sell his works in a certain field, his exclusive right to further sell will only be lost in that field."
It can be seen from the above characteristics that the principle of exhaustion of rights is undoubtedly a huge restriction on the exclusiveness of intellectual property rights. In order to prevent the abuse of this principle from bringing unnecessary restrictions and damages to the obligee, it is necessary to accurately define its connotation and application scope. In the following, the author will talk about the understanding and application of it with several questions.