delivery in USA only?

"Norman Wells" wrote

Are you trying to suggest that there is no second-hand market here?! I suppose Ebay & charity shops are just figments of our imagination...

[I'm assuming, of course, that most second-hand sellers wouldn't even consider getting permission from the trademark owner...]

"Gaz" wrote

That depends on your definition of "the end of the supply chain". Where is this defined in the Trademarks legislation?

Strictly, it's trade mark infringement, so strictly they should. But companies have much better things to do than pursue the sellers of individual second hand items.

Offer to sell 100,000 pairs of new Brazilian Levi jeans in the UK, however, and there would be a problem.

It's only a matter of scale.

"Norman Wells" wrote

And do you think that the trademark owner can "re-acquire" the right on a particular item later, after they have lost it?

Also - how is someone buying a second-hand item meant to know if it was originally sold within *their* free-trade area (and hence "legal"), or if it was imported into their free trade area after original sale (and hence "illegal", according to your comments) ?

"Norman Wells" wrote

What sort of volume of sales do you think goes through Ebay & charity shops? It ain't chicken-feed!!

"Norman Wells" wrote in news:ffpj96$3t7$1$ snipped-for-privacy@news.demon.co.uk:

[snip]

Much equipment is now dual voltage - it'll auto-select to work in EU or US. That's handy for manfs, they only need to design and test one product for a large market area. (110 V at 60 Hz and 240 V at 50 Hz covers a huge market.)

Yet the same product, probably made in the same factory, is usually more expensive in the UK than in the US.

Their rights are in the trade mark, not in the goods, and you must distinguish the two. If they sell goods in, say, Brazil, they can't stop future trade in those goods in Brazil or in the rest of the world. However, if they notice that these goods are now being sold still bearing the same trade mark in, say, the UK, they can use their UK Trade Mark registration to stop that if they wish.

Usually the purchaser wouldn't know, and wouldn't be pursued. The bulk exporter or importer is the one the trade mark owner would want to nail.

Nor is it legal.

Exactly! So the TM holder *doesn't* ever "... lose the right to enforce restrictions once the goods have left the supply chain." That's a total red-herring.

"Norman Wells" wrote

So, they just sell them still within Brazil. UK residents can purchase by phone / fax / internet. Then, once they now own the goods which are still sitting in Brazil (they were re-sold in Brazil), the UK purchaser can import them personally to the UK...

Oh, and to save the purchaser the trouble of travelling to Brazil to pick up the goods, the seller (now acting as the new owner's agent, rather than as a seller) will post them to the UK...

Has the trademark been infringed in this case? If so, when?

"Norman Wells" wrote

Why don't the trademark owners pursue it, then?

Sorry, i didnt make it clear, i was referring to the legal status within the EU. Of course, this is just old fashinoned protectionism, but practised by the multinationals. They dont taking the advantages of Globalisation, by moving all their manufacturing to China, but pay governments to prevent the average person also taking advantage of globalisation.

Gaz

In any market economy, it's for the producer to set the price of his goods according to the market in which he's selling them. If he was always forced to sell at the lowest price at which the goods are on sale in any market, and he would be if the whole world were a free trade area because of grey imports, then he wouldn't ever attempt to sell goods in a low price economy, and the poor countries of the world would never have access to them. So, protectionism as you call it, works both ways.

Yes. When the goods enter the UK.

Indeed.

Motorola - adapter works on either automatically.

Sony - move slider to correct voltage position, plug in local IEC lead.

Yamaha - open case, find correct windings resolder mains connections etc. Yes they go to the trouble of having national variants - mostly to prevent trade.

If the scale is great enough, I imagine they do.

"Norman Wells" wrote

Why? They are not being traded at that time (they've been owned by the UK resident for a while already).

Do you think that an owner of an item infringes a trademark simply by moving it across a border?

That is actually allowed. Your Friend is actually buying the product. If he send it to you, it is a gift. Which in this case is allowed. He will need to mark it gift, So, it will go through customs better.

There are still things U.S. citizens can not ship out of the country.

Here are some of the reason U.S. business do not ship out of the country.

Regulations-I read paperwork is a major headaches.

Card rates for international purchases are higher,

Shipping Cost are higher.

They are also responsible for return shipping of an undelivered product.

Yes. See Sections 10 to 12 of the Trade Marks Act 1994.

This article explains the principles which apply to such cases:

Matti