Parallel Imports

Piracy and its disastrous effects are very well known. However, it is yet another less known villain that sometimes also causes harmful effects to the rights of intellectual property owners - Parallel Imports.

Parallel Importation is the non-authorized introduction of legitimate goods into a country. As its name reveals, it follows non-regular channels of commerce and therefore may cause various unforeseen harms:

• to the title-holder, damages to the reputation of its marks, since its products may have a different quality than the one required under local legislation;
• to local licensees or distributors, as adherence to local laws generates additional burden as compared to parallel importers, whose products have not been subject to them;