Structuring the Deal to Avoid Patent Exhaustion (Post Impression Products v. Lexmark)

Authors

Sachin Bhatmuley

Abstract

The Supreme Court’s 2017 ruling in Impression Products v. Lexmark clearly came as an unwelcome, though not unexpected, shock to patent owners. In it, the Supreme Court ruled on two issues—the ability of a patentee to enforce post-sale restrictions on a patented product and the exhaustion of the patentee’s rights when the patented product was purchased internationally. On both counts, the Court took a position unfavorable to patent owners. Part I of this paper introduces patent exhaustion and briefly surveys the jurisprudence in the area of IP exhaustion. Part II of this paper provides the analysis of the Lexmark Supreme Court ruling.

Recommended Citation

Sachin Bhatmuley, Structuring the Deal to Avoid Patent Exhaustion (Post Impression Products v. Lexmark), 22 Tenn. J. Bus. L. 137 (2020) ,
DOI: https://doi.org/10.70658/4486-1457.1558
https://ir.law.utk.edu/transactions/vol22/iss1/5