A contractual approach to the gray market

Parallel imports are genuine products imported without the authorization of the trademark or copyright owner in a country. Authorized dealers have emp loyed trademark and copyright law to exclude parallel imports using claims of infringement, Our assertion is that trademark and copyright laws are ina ppropriate for enforcing restrictions against parallel imports for two reas ons. First, trademark exclusion of parallel imports indiscriminately elimin ates intrabrand competition and should be scrutinized from an antitrust per spective. Second, trademark laws inefficiently constrain the feasible set o f distribution systems. We propose a policy combining contract, tort, and a ntitrust law to regulate parallel imports. (C) 1999 by Elsevier Science Inc .