By Erik Verbraeken

It has been quite some time that I have not updated the “Exhaustion Theory Is Not Yet Exhausted” series. In the latest edition stemming from March 2014, the focus was laid on several U.S. decisions where the IP right holder contested that he had consented to a “first sale” of the product as a result of which his IP rights were to be considered as exhausted, and where as a consequence of such deemed consent the purchaser considered itself free to use or resell that product without further restraint from patent law.