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Definitions
List of terms for Intellectual property
E
European Patent Office
Body set up to administer patents issued under the European Patent Convention (EPC). Under the terms of the convention, a patent issued by the EPO, which is based in Munich, is valid in all signatory states of the EPC (which includes most, but not all, members of the European Union, as well as several additional states).
Exhaustion
Once an item of an intellectual property rights (IPR) protected product is sold for the first time, the rights the IPR holder has over that item are said to be exhausted (also known as the "first sale doctrine"). Under a policy of national exhaustion, although the IPR are exhausted in that country, the system prohibits imports of that product from a third country. Thus right holders can prevent parallel imports from other countries. International exhaustion means that sale in any one country exhausts rights everywhere (allowing parallel imports wherever price differentials make it commercially attractive).
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