First Sale Doctrine, What You Need to Know!
There was a case years ago, I believe it had to do with Monroe shock absorbers, where they wear out, of course, and you go to a mechanic to have new shocks put in, and what happens to the old ones? So someone decided that they’re not that complicated, they could buy up the old ones and refurbish them, and sell them again as used parts.
And of course that’s very common today, but it had to be decided, is that permitted or not? But what rights does the original patent owner have in those shock absorbers? And the courts came up with what we call the first sale doctrine or, sometimes it’s called the patent exhaustion doctrine, which says that once you make a product and you sell it and you get paid for it, your rights are gone. You no longer have rights in it.
And this actually goes through copyright law as well. If you buy a book and a library wants to loan the book out or somebody wants to resell the book. Are there any rights of the original copyright owner? And the answer is no, because once you own it, it’s yours. And the person who had the original copyright or own the original patent no longer has rights in it.