Accu Chek Consignment Non Impliedly Marketed Inward Eea; Latest Ijlit

Use of CE grade does non imply consent to resale inwards EEA

Last Th Chancery Division approximate Mr Justice Lewison was dorsum inwards activity again, inwards Roche Products Ltd v Kent Pharmaceuticals Ltd. This jewel tin last establish on both the Lawtel and All England Direct subscription services, only non (yet?) on BAILII. It volition soundless last reported in the European Trade Mark Reports later this year.

Roche, a pharmacecutical fellowship that made ACCU CHEK Advantage II strips for self testing of glucose levels inwards blood, sued parallel importers Kent for merchandise grade infringement, seeking summary judgment. Roche alleged that a consignment of goods imported past times Kent from French Republic was commencement marketed inwards the Dominican Republic on the footing that it would last used entirely inwards clinical trials only would non last resold or transferred to other parties. The imported goods bore a "CE" grade (indicating compliance amongst European Community standards) in addition to bore information in addition to instructions inwards 3 European languages.

Kent said argued that the populace would regard packaging that bore the CE grade in addition to the purpose of 3 European languages equally showing Roche's unequivocal consent to the marketing of the consignment inside the EEA. Roche submitted that it was the province of heed of the possessor that counted, non the province of heed of a department of the populace inside the EEA.

Lewison J gave judgment for Roche, asset equally follows:

* it was patently from the government that the courtroom sought a demonstration of actual consent, either limited or implied, past times the merchandise grade proprietor to its products beingness marketed inwards the EEA -- non deemed consent.

* Roche had non consented to the marketing of the units inside the EEA when it supplied them to the tertiary party. The presence of a CE grade on packaging showed that the production had been formally approved for sale in addition to that regulations had been complied with, only this was an termination of character assurance, non an indication that Roche had consented to the production beingness placed on the marketplace inside the EEA.

* it could non last said that it had been shown that Roche renounced its merchandise grade rights or that it had impliedly consented to the marketing of the goods inside the EEA.

* in that location was no reasonable prospect that Kent would successfully defend Roche's action.

agrees that Lewison J has got it correct again. The presence of the CE grade on the products mightiness good last a necessary status for the marketing of those products, only the fulfilment of a necessary status is non the same affair equally the giving of implied consent to marketing inwards the EEA.

More on the CE sign here and here


Latest IJLIT

's Spring 2006 termination of the International Journal of Law in addition to Information Technology, published quarterly by Oxford University Press, has straightaway emerged. It contains iv slap-up skillful pieces:

* Roger K. Baker (ItemPlus Consulting) writes on the application of the EU's eighth Data Protection Principle (“Personal information shall non last transferred to a province or territory exterior the European Economic Area unless that province or territory ensures an adequate degree of protection for the rights in addition to freedoms of information subjects inwards relation to the processing of personal data.”) to offshore information technology outsourcing;

* Margaret Jackson in addition to Marita Shelly (RMIT University) hash out the Australian stance of copyright infringement through "authorisation" - a topic on which Australian in addition to United Kingdom of Great Britain in addition to Northern Ireland courts stimulate got taken substantially dissimilar views;

* Warren B. Chik (left, Singapore Management University) considers issues relating to communications privacy on that real populace medium, the internet;

* Philip Michael Romero (American Professional Safety Trainers Alliance) employs the metaphors of immunology when examining information counter-terrorism;

* Lior Zemer (University of Leicester, presently to last UCL) incites readers to produce unopen to serious rethinking of basic copyright concepts.

Full contents in addition to abstracts available here