Can a Parallel Importer Rebrand Pharmaceutical Products in the EU?

Grigienė Jurgita (), Čerka Paulius () and Perkumienė Dalia ()
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Grigienė Jurgita: Faculty of Law, Vytautas Magnus University, Jonavos g. 66, Kaunas44191, Lithuania
Čerka Paulius: Faculty of Law, Vytautas Magnus University, Jonavos g. 66, Kaunas44191, Lithuania
Perkumienė Dalia: Faculty of Bioeconomy, Business and Rural Development Research Institute, Agriculture Academy, Vytautas Magnus University, Universiteto 10–404, Kauno distr. 53361, Lithuania

TalTech Journal of European Studies, 2019, vol. 9, issue 1, 57-76

Abstract: The European Union has established the free movement of goods, which covers the parallel import of goods in the EU. However, the free movement of goods should not infringe on the rights of trade mark owners. In some cases, parallel importer needs not only to repackage but also to rebrand pharmaceutical products. ECJ has stated that rebranding is permissible if objective necessity to rebrand exists. But it is the national court that has to determine what objective necessity is. This paper analyses the decisions of EU Member States. In some cases, objective necessity has been determined on similar grounds. However, in other cases, a necessity to enter some part of the market has been evaluated differently in different Member States. The different evaluation of the necessity criterion could be treated as the infringement of uniform application of the free movement of goods in the EU.

Keywords: parallel import; rebranding; repacking; trade mark (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:vrs:bjeust:v:9:y:2019:i:1:p:57-76:n:4

DOI: 10.1515/bjes-2019-0004

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