Tress Cox - Good news for parallel importers - bad news for copyright owners

Alistair Little and Emma Talbot of Tress Cox report on the decision of The Polo/Lauren Co L.P v Ziliani Holdings Pty Ltd, in which the Federal Court recently considered the parallel import provisions in the Copyright Act 1968 (Cth). According to Alistair Little and Emma Talbot, the case confirmed that the local owner of copyright in the packaging or labelling of goods is not able to stop other people from importing those goods when the goods themselves are not protected by copyright.

Alistair Little and Emma Talbot note that the Court held that the Copyright Act should only be used to protect articles which truly are copyright works (such as original artistic works) and that the claim by Polo was an inappropriate attempt to make use of the protection granted by the Copyright Act.

Good news for parallel importers - bad news for copyright owners


Related Posts