Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

UK IP exhaustion after Brexit: government confirms UK+ EEA-asymmetric regime with no legislative change; consequences for parallel imports and practical advice for rights holders

Published on: 02 July 2025

Published by a LexisNexis IP expert

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Article summary

What is the background to the consultation?

IP rights confer exclusive monopolies on their owners. Ordinarily, those protections stop others from selling, trading in, or importing products that infringe the monopoly. Exhaustion The principle of exhaustion curbs that exclusivity for items already placed on the market with the rights holder’s consent. Once goods are put on the relevant market with permission, the IP proprietor cannot object to their sale, subsequent dealing, or import. A central issue within exhaustion is identifying the relevant market; by placing goods into that market, the proprietor’s rights are exhausted. This matters especially when considering the entitlement to import products covered by IP rights. Many rights holders aim to command premium prices in high-income territories, yet they also wish to supply lower-income markets that cannot bear such premiums. The difficulty arises when those lower-priced goods reach high-income markets, undercutting authorised channels and eroding profit margins. Unauthorised imports—known as parallel imports because they occur alongside authorised imports—therefore create challenges for rights holders. This focus on market definition becomes pivotal where importation is concerned, as permissions travel with goods. When cheaper consignments reappear in wealthy territories, they sidestep official channels and compress expected profits for proprietors...

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