Exhaustion of rights - art. 21 - Community designs Regulation
Comments by: Paweł Wrześniewski
COUNCIL REGULATION (EC) No 6/2002 of 12 December 2001 on Community designs
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Art. 21
EXHAUSTION OF RIGHTS
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The rights conferred by a Community design shall not extend to acts relating to a product in which a design included within the scope of protection of the Community design is incorporated or to which it is applied, when the product has been put on the market in the Community by the holder of the Community design or with his consent.
The reason to make such a regulation is not to create an instrument allowing proprietor of a design to earn twice. Not to mention unfairly blocking the trade at all. Please note for example that registered Community design shall confer on its holder the exclusive right to use it and to prevent any third party not having his consent from using it. The aforementioned use shall cover, in particular, the making, offering, putting on the market, importing, exporting or using of a product in which the design is incorporated or to which it is applied, or stocking such a product for those purposes (see article 19).
Rules put into art. 21 are similar but not identical to those concerning European Union trade mark. An EU trade mark shall not entitle the proprietor to prohibit its use in relation to goods which have been put on the market in the European Economic Area under that trade mark by the proprietor or with his consent (what shall not apply where there exist legitimate reasons for the proprietor to oppose further commercialisation of the goods, especially where the condition of the goods is changed or impaired after they have been put on the market).
[last update: 27th of May 2020]