The terms "exhaustion of rights", "parallel
imports" and "grey market goods" come up a lot in
the world of trade marks. They generally arise in relation to the
fact that a company that has authorised the manufacture and sale of
goods under its trade mark can't use trade mark law to stop the
sale of those goods by parties with whom it may have no
relationship.
This issue tends to come up in the context of international
trade. For example, a trade mark owner may authorise a company in
another country to manufacture goods under the trade mark. Using
South Africa as an example, a South African company might then buy
those goods directly from the manufacturer, ship them to South
Africa and sell them in South Africa, possibly in competition with
(and cheaper than) the authorised South African distributor. The
trade mark owner cannot stop this because the trade mark rights
have been "exhausted", meaning the "parallel
imports" are legitimate goods because the trade mark
