International Patent Exhaustion Case Gets Cert to Supreme Court

On December 2, 016, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review the Federal Circuit’s decision in Impression Products, Inc., v. Lexmark International, Inc., 816 F.3d 721 (2016).  In Impression Products v. Lexmark, the Federal Circuit held that mere selling of a U.S.-patented article in a foreign country does not authorize the buyer to import, sell or use the purchased article in the United States.  The doctrine of Patent Exhaustion retains its firm footing in the U.S., however.