The first sale in the Community of the original of a work or copies thereof by the rightholder or with his consent exhausts the right to control resale of that object in the Community.

(29) The question of exhaustion does not arise in the case of services and on-line services in particular.

The question of exhaustion of trade mark rights and the possible effects of a change from the present Community-wide exhaustion regime to a system of international exhaustion, notably as regards allowing "parallel imports", had been brought to the forefront by a ruling of the European Court of Justice (case C-355/96 (Silhouette)) given on 16 July 1998 in which the Court had clarified the legal position by interpreting Directive 89/104/EEC on trademarks.

Current legislation in Member States appears to be aligned with one of the following two forms of this principle: Sometimes, where there has already been a prior conviction for the same act in another country, the sentence having been handed down must be taken into account in a way that leads to a reduction of the second sentence ("Anrechnungsprinzip" - principle of taking into account) [13] The "Erledigungsprinzip" (principle of exhaustion of proceedings) forbids a second decision on the same matter (and with regard to the same person[s]) altogether.

In certain cases, some Member States provide for no exhaustion of the distribution right at all whereas others apply exhaustion even when the first legal act of distribution has occurred in a place outside the EU ( international exhaustion ).

There is also a need to harmonize, strengthen and practise enforcement rules on an EU level; - Exhaustion of Rights: Except in certain limited cases, an intellectual property right holder should retain full control over the importation and further distribution of products incorporating its intellectual property rights; - Digitization is a copying method and should in principle be treated the same as any other method of copying; - Private copying: it is vital that unlicensed copying for commercial purposes should be clearly forbidde ...[+++]n; - Technical protection: it is not appropriate the Committee says to require right owners or manufacturers to follow any particular regime of technical protection but, if one is followed, then it should be unlawful to assist in circumventing it; - Digital broadcasting: there should be no distinction between analogue and digital broadcasts; - Digital dissemination or transmission right: transmission should be covered by the exclusive rights of the right holder, including the exclusive right to make works available to the general public; - Moral rights: the ease with which digital works can be altered implies strong moral rights.