The first part of this post can be viewed here International exhaustion: The Court then delved into the question of whether the sale of a patented product abroad would also result in the exhaustion of the rights of a patentee over that product. In answering that question in the affirmative, the Court principally relied on its landmark judgment in the case of Kirtsaeng versus John Wiley and Sons which was covered on this blog here. In Kirtsaeng, the Court had…

In a landmark development earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court delivered a verdict that is likely to play a central role in shaping the theoretical understanding and practical application of the patent exhaustion doctrine by courts across the globe. Writing for a near-unanimous court (Justice Ginsburg disagreed with one prong of the court’s conclusion), Chief Justice Roberts ruled that: (1) a patentee is denuded of all its rights over a patented invention the moment the invention is sold in…