THE PROBLEMS OF «PARALLEL IMPORTS» IN THE LAWENFORCEMENT
PRACTICE OF CUSTOMS SERVICES OF RUSSIA-BELARUS-KAZAKHSTAN CUSTOMS UNION 

Agamagomedova Saniyat Abdulganievna, Candidate of sociological sciences, associate professor, Penza State University (40 Krasnaya street, Penza, Russia), saniyat_aga@mail.ru

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Background. With the development of international trade the issues of intellectual property protection become topical when goods containing objects of intel lectual property cross customs borders. It accounts for the development of discussion on parallel imports and the use of the principle of rights exhaustion under the modern integration processes. The purpose of the paper is to review the existing concepts in the area of exclusive rights exhaustion and suggest the ways of their application in the framework of the Customs Union and Eurasian Economic Community.
Materials and methods. The implementation of research tasks has been achieved on the basis of studying the regulatory and legal framework in the area of exclusive rights exhaustion, which includes several levels: international, supranational (the level of the Customs Union) and national legislation. The author has used the historical method while studying the processes of the formation of the active principle of rights exhaustion in the domestic legislation. The study is based on the results of judicial practice and acts of the Supreme Arbitration Court of the Russian Federation characterizing the enforcement practice in the area of “parallel imports”. In addition, we used the method of expert assessment in the regulation of the principle of rights exhaustion, under which the official positions of certain government departments of the Russian Federation (Russian Federal Antimonopoly Service, Federal Customs Service of Russia) were considered.
Results. The article deals with enforcement practices involving customs authorities and rightholders in the area of using intellectual property rights as well as positions on the issue of rights exhaustion in the Customs Union. The modern tendencies in solving “parallel imports” problem on the territory of the Customs Union have been pointed out. The expediency of applying the principle of regional rights exhaustion on the territory of the Eurasian Economic Community has been grounded.
Conclusions. Based on the analysis of the regulatory and legal framework, enforcement practice and theoretical positions in the area of exclusive rights exhaustion the paper concludes that there is a necessity to preserve the regional principle of exclusive rights exhaustion as the basis of the optimal mechanism for the protection of intellectual property rights in the Customs Union.

parallel imports, principle of rights exhaustion, exclusive right to a trademark, TRIPS, Code of Administrative Offences of the Russian Federation, Federal Customs Service of Russia, Federal Antimonopoly Service of Russia,
infringing goods.

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