The Case for a Legislative Amendment against Accessory Copyright for Grey Market Products: What Can the U.S. Learn from Singapore and Australia
Abstract
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.
This paper has been withdrawn.