Exhaustion and Parallel Import J39-53 Class 10
General Rule:
Purchasing a patented product from the patentee exhausts the patent right of patentee. It implies a license to the purchaser to use the product in any way he desires (use should imply here resale, export reimport, further processing, etc.)

Limitations of use may be imposed by the patentee (the seller) on the purchaser to use the purchased product only:

Conflicts arise when

International Exhaustion and Parallel Import

Germany Federal Supreme Court (BGH 14.12.95, 1ZR 210/93) revised general rule of "international exhaustion" and upheld the right of the German trademark owner to block unauthorized import of Levis Jeans from outside the European Union into Germany.

Japan Supreme Court ruled July 1, 1997, that BBS Kraftfahrzeug Technik could not bar Jap-Auto Products from importing into Japan BB's Aluminium wheels purchased in Germany nor stop the sale of such wheels by K.K. Racimex Japan. The wheels were protected by German and Japanese patents hold by BBS.

The U.S. doctrine of exhaustionJ42
Exhaustion of patent rights originates in the principle that no person should be allowed to impose conditions which are repugnant to his grant. Articles in communis juris should be alienable or usable free of private restraints.

Typical of many statements of the rule of exhaustion in U.S. law is the one following from the judgment of Mr Chief Justice Stone in United States v. Univis Lens Co. (1942):
His monopoly remains so long as he retains ownership of the patent article. [But] the patentee may not thereafter, by virtue of his patent, control the use or disposition of the article. The first vending of the article manufactured under the patent puts the article beyond the right of monopoly which the patent confers.

The first vending (at which time the patentee should obtain reward for his monopoly rights) is
a vehicle for transferring to the buyer ownership of the invention with respect to that article.

But there are exceptions:J43
The U.S. doctrine of exhaustion is not without its exceptions. For instance, in Tripoli Co. v. Wella Corp. (1970), a circuit court granted an injunction in a patent action to restrain the resale of protected products to non-professional cosmetic users. The patentee's desire to protect both itself against product liability claims and the public against non-professional application of its products was held sufficient to justify the restriction imposed on their resale.

United KingdomJ44

It remains a rule of domestic law in United Kingdom that, to use or market patented goods therein, their owner needs the patentee's license.
Patent rights are not exhausted, as such, under the law, by the first proper marketing of the protected product.
But an effect identical to exhaustion results form the granting of an unlimited license to market or use patented products.
However, if a purchaser's license from the patentee is limited by giving notice of restrictions on its scope when the patented products are being purchased, the restrictions are said not to be contractual but nevertheless enforceable by means of a patent action for infringement

As a principle of trade law, exhaustion of patent rights liberates trade (domestic or international) in patented products from the artificial barriers that otherwise might be erected by way of judicial remedies in a patent action.
Products which have been liberated through the exhaustion of patent rights can enter the national markets of EEC Member States. This enhances competition within the Common Market, both quantitatively and qualitatively.
W. Arnold, "International and Comparative Patent Law", FPLC, Concord N.H. USA 10/14 page3