EBay Wins as High Court Backs ‘Gray Market’ Discount Goods
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The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that publishers and manufacturers can’t block imports of copyrighted items made and sold abroad, bolstering the multibillion-dollar “gray market” in a victory for EBay Inc. and discount chains.
The justices, voting 6-3, today threw out a $600,000 jury award assessed against a graduate student who imported John Wiley & Sons Inc.’s textbooks from his native Thailand and sold them in the U.S. for a profit.