The case for a legislative amendment against accessory copyright for grey market products: What can the U.S. learn from Singapore and Australia

• Main Authors: CALBOLI, Irene, LAFRANCE, Mary
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2013
• Subjects: Intellectual Property Law
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/sol_research/2313; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/sol_research/article/4265/viewcontent/AccessoryAmendment.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

In this article, we suggest that the U.S. Congress could implement a legislative provision prohibiting copyright protection for incidental product features in the context of parallel imports. The U.S.would not be the first country to implement such a provision. In 1994, Singapore pioneered the adoption of a similar provision, which was introduced as an amendment to the SG 1987 Copyright Act. A few years later, in 1998, Australia incorporated a similar amendment to its Aust. Copyright Act 1968. In this article, we analyse in detail the Singapore and Australia provisions and, building upon these provisions, we suggest a specific amendment that the U.S. Congress could introduce into the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976.