The Court of Turin has once again ruled on the principle of trademark exhaustion.

The Court of Turin recently ruled again on the principle of trademark exhaustion in response to the precautionary requests filed by a company operating in the cosmetics and perfumery market, seeking to prohibit the use of its trademark and the marketing of associated products by certain assignees.

As is well known, the Industrial Property Code establishes that the exclusive rights belonging to the trademark owner are exhausted upon their first placing on the market and therefore the owner of the exclusive right cannot oppose their subsequent commercialization. 

The rationale behind this provision, the judge recalled in his ruling, is to prevent the trademark owner from being able, by virtue of this qualification, to influence the market performance of the products that are distinguished by the sign he owns. 

The only exception to this rule is the occurrence of unfair commercial practices by distributors, who may adopt sales methods that damage the brand's prestige and reliability and ultimately lead to a disadvantage in terms of attractiveness and economic value of the branded product.

Outside of these cases, all those entitled to use the distinctive sign and to distribute the related products on the market must not be hindered in the exercise of their activity either with regard to the final price or with regard to the sales system. 

Therefore, restrictions on distributors regarding online sales and the application of price discounts would be undue and unjustified, as these practices do not in themselves constitute discreditable practices.