Under Bulgarian legislation there is no international exhaustion of IP rights. There are no specific provisions regulating the situation of parallel imports. However, the owner of IPR is entitled to invoke these rights only in case of unlawful acquisition or unauthorized use or products protected by IPR.

Contractual restrictions imposed by and industrial property right owner can be used to limit the effect of international exhaustion. However, this is can be done in accordance with the general civil laws and procedure and not in accordance with the specific industrial property legislation,

Eventual breach of contractual restriction can lead to the termination of the contract or indemnity. Such a breach cannot result in automatic exhaustion of rights or reverse.

It is always better if the contractual clauses are explicit and not implied. In the latter case it is necessary to interpret the contract clauses and this interpretation in most of the cases is not synonymous and ca result in difficulties especially in the case of interpretation of the law in the course of court proceedings because of lack of explicit provision.

No provision in the legislation. However, such marking may be required by the owner of IPR and included into the license agreement.

No provision. In case of contractual requirement of marking its loss will lead to disputes.

Compulsory license is applicable only in connection with patents. It is a special kind of license only in view of its granting and termination. With regard to the products produced under a compulsory license there is no difference in their legal status in comparison with the ones produced under and ordinary license.

Bulgarian legislation provides for the IPR owner's consent in order to give rise to the exhaustion of these rights.

The IPR owner can object to parallel importation in case of modification of the goods and/or their packaging (i) if this modification constitutes an infringement of the IPR or contractual arrangements and (ii) if the quality of the goods or their appearance is worsened. Relief can be sought in accordance with the patent, trademark and design legislation and in accordance with the unfair competition legislation.

Bulgarian legislation in the field of industrial property protection consists of recently adopted laws. The Law on patents effective 1993 does not contain an explicit provision regarding exhaustion of rights. The Law on Marks and Geographical Indications, the Law on Topography of Integrated Circuits, and the Law on Protection of New Plant Varieties and Animal Breeds contain explicit provisions on the national exhaustion of rights. Bulgaria is not a member of regional arrangements and therefore regional exhaustion of rights does not apply. Our legislation does not have explicit provisions on the international exhaustion of rights.

Résumé

Dans la loi national sur le brevets il n'y a pas de texte explicite portant sur l'epuisement des droits du brevet, tandis que dans la Loi des marques de les indications geographiques, ainsi que dans la Loi sur le dessin industriel et la Loi de la topographie des circuits integres existent des textes stipulant les cas d'epuisement du droit de propriete industrielle respective.

Dans le rapport est indique que la legislation nationale de lar Republique de Bulgarie ne reglemente pas explicitement les questions de l'epuisement des droits lors de l'importation parallele. Dans un cas analogue on examine le fait si l'importateur porte atteinte au brevet, a la marque de commerce ou a un autre droit de propriete industrelle. En principe les rapoorts contractuels definis aux termes de la leglislation nationale et non aux termes des lois sur la propriete industrielle, peuvent servir pour restreinare l'epuisement international des droits de propriete industrielle. Lors des negociations il serait bien de prevoir des clauses precises et explicites, au lieu de compter sur une interpretation, car cell-ci n'est pas toujours precise et le plus souvent la decision est prise au cours d'une procedure judiciaire. La license obligatoire n'est prevue que dans la loi sur les brevets et est attribuee d'apres de procedures speciales. Le genre de la licence ne concerne pas le status legal des produits memes, fabriques dans le cadre des contrats.

En principe le titulaire des droits de propriete industrielle peut faire une objection contre l'importation parallele en cas de modification des produits ou de leur emballage dans les deux cas suivants: 1) s'il existe une violation des droits, et 2) lorsque la qualite est pire, ce qui est inclu au terme "concurrence deloyale".