first sale

The Supreme Court recently handed down its decision in Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, a copyright exhaustion case concerning the sale of “gray-market” works published outside the United States and imported for sale. In a surprisingly decisive 6-3 decision, the Court reversed the Second Circuit’s decision and held that ...

In the Ninth Circuit decision of Omega, S.A. v. Costco Wholesale Corp., the court ruled that the first sale doctrine does not apply to imported works manufactured abroad. Costco appealed, and oral arguments before the United States Supreme Court took place in early November. The case was based on the ...

On Friday, the Ninth Circuit clarified its test for determining whether a software purchaser is a licensee or an owner of the purchased copy in Vernor v. Autodesk, Inc. The result affirms the ability of software publishers to restrain licensees’ ability to sell, rent, or otherwise transfer their copies, but ...