First Sale Doctrine and Profit Making in Copyrighted Goods

Abstract

In the case “Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons Inc”, the main issue of this case is that the buyer bought the textbook published in Singapore under copyright of publishing company and specified that “Not for Sale in the US”, which is the condition of the distributor (dealer) in Singapore whom authorized to publish this textbook from copyright owner.

Whether or not in this case the buyer has the right to distribute the textbook in the US?

Since the textbook was unpublished in the US, thus the First-Sale Doctrine shall not be applied for this case. Nevertheless, this form of import regards as the arbitrage directly opposed to the intention of copyright owner since there is the obvious notification on the book cover. This case is consistent with the case of duplicated imports or Grey market occurring between the distributor and copyright owner as occurred in the Omega case.

This article will only focus on two main issues relating to the First Sale Doctrine which are Grey Market and Software Copyright. The article will make a summary on the considered issues in effect of the case “Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons Inc” to clarity of the First Sale Doctrine, which are “apart from an advancement of the FirstSale Doctrine, the outcomes of this case affect the principle of laws in the related intellectual properties and also is the key factor to the security of Online market and Grey market”.