RLC Urges Supreme Court to Uphold First Sale Doctrine 

Today, the Retail Litigation Center (RLC), along with the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS), The American Free Trade Association (AFTA) and Quality King Distributors, Inc. submitted an amicus curiae brief to the Supreme Court of the United States asking the Court to uphold the first sale doctrine in the context of goods lawfully manufactured outside the United States in the case of Supap Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 

The first sale doctrine allows the lawful owner of an item, such as a book, CD or virtually any household product, to resell the item without the consent of the copyright owner. The freedom to resell items downstream allows for a robust secondary market. The question presented by the RLC brief is whether the copyright owner is entitled to control downstream sales just because it opts to manufacture the items abroad or whether the first sale doctrine also applies to goods manufactured outside the United States.

According to the brief:

“To retailers, wholesalers, and consumers of copyrighted works, the first sale doctrine is the Magna Carta of commerce. Businesses need confidence that they can purchase and resell genuine goods in U.S. commerce free from claims of copyright infringement, whether the goods are of domestic or foreign provenance.  Properly interpreted, the first sale doctrine secures to businesses and individuals the right to acquire and resell goods produced by or under the authority of the holder of the United States copyright, regardless of whether the goods were made in the United States or abroad.” 

The full brief can be found here.

The Retail Litigation Center is a public policy organization that identifies and engages in legal proceedings which affect the retail industry.  The RLC, whose members include America’s largest retailers, was formed to provide courts with retail industry perspectives on significant legal issues, and highlight the potential industry-wide consequences of legal principles that may be determined in pending cases.

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