6 A majority of respondents in this sector were against an international exhaustion regime, in all three areas of intellectual property. The main arguments cited against a regime of international exhaustion were that international exhaustion would cause intellectual property holders to lose control of distribution channels and create difficulties with enforcement of territorial restrictions in license agreements. 4 None of the responses from the sector favored international exhaustion in any intellectual property area. International exhaustion will mainly benefit trading companies. 2 None of the respondents in this sector supported international exhaustion.
Products have to be prepared with different tastes and formulations for different markets.
6 None of the responses from the sector favored international exhaustion. Risk of confusion with spare parts, catalogues etc. International exhaustion served consumer interests by putting pressure on prices. The growing Internet trade made international exhaustion the only possible regime. However, one retail company felt that the same growing use of Internet for distribution makes control of distribution and sale of trademarked products even more important, and took a position against international exhaustion in the survey.