What is consent? A note on Davidoff and Levi Strauss

Abstract:

In Davidoff and Levi Strauss the Court of Justice was confronted with the question of what may constitute a trade mark proprietor's consent to the marketing in the EEA of trade marked goods that have previously been put on the market outside the EAA. This question is crucial to the protection of the trade mark proprietor's rights: if he has consented he may not oppose parallel imports from outside the EEA of the goods in question. The ruling constitutes presently the last development of the Court's much discussed ruling in Silhouette.