Repackaging Pharmaceuticals - Scant Guidance From the ECJ

Background

The cases of Merck v.Paranova (referred by the Oberlandesgericht Wien) and Boehringer v. Swingward (referred by the High Court in London) consider the question of when a trade mark proprietor is entitled to rely on its trade mark rights to prevent repackaging of its goods by parallel importers. Both cases involve parallel importation of branded pharmaceutical products within the EEA that have been repackaged and the trade marks reaffixed to the outer packaging. The Advocate General gave his Opinion on the two cases in July of last year and that has largely been followed