Parallel Imports and the International Principle of Exhaustion of Rights under Sanctions

In the modern world, parallel imports implemented in compliance with the international principle of exhaustion of intellectual property rights can and should become a mechanism for developing free trade, ensuring international competition and protecting the interests of consumers around the world. The sanctions adopted in early 2022 and imposed against the Russian Federation, as well as suspension of the activities of a number of foreign companies in the Russian Federation, encouraged the author to examine the current trajectories of introducing the international principle of exhaustion of rights into legislation and the possibility of parallel imports applied in order to provide Russian consumers with goods that have ceased to be available on the domestic market. The author reviews legislative regulatory acts adopted in Russia for the purpose of ensuring parallel imports and implementing the international principle of exhaustion of rights, analyzes possible problems of its implementation and ways to solve the problems under consideration, examines foreign experience, international legal and regional foundations for the introduction of the exhaustion of rights regime.