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Prarallel imports is a confusing subject. Basically, it is importing goods manufactured abroad that are available in the US. Some parallel imports, or grey market goods, are not allowed. Specifically those where the product is different from the product sold in the US. But, the many courts differ. In Great Britain the trademark holder can block the importation of his goods into the country, period. Low-life British companies are using this as an excuse to terminate eBay auctions for their goods being sold internationally even though they haven't been sold yet. Instead of telling the seller to add "No British Sales" to their listings, they take the harmful route of claiming trademark infringement and eBay doesn't care. Although there are a number of laws in the United States that address the issue of parallel imports of trademarked products, the treatment of parallel imports is fairly uniform. In an early decision permitting the unauthorized importation and sale of genuine bottled water from Europe, it was held that once a trademarked product is placed on the market, trade mark rights may not be used to control the product's further destination. Although decided under common law principles of trademark law, this early decision was subsequently applied to the codified trademark law and has remained the law to this day under the infringement provisions of the present day Lanham Act. Thus US laws have long considered that the nature of trademark rights, at least with respect to parallel imports, are universal, namely, once a genuine trademarked product is placed on the global marketplace anywhere in the world, by or with the consent of the trademark owner, the trademark owner may not control the further distribution of that product under a theory of trademark infringement. This theory of parallel imports is said to be the rule of universal, or international, exhaustion. Federal Court Accepts Unique Copyright Attack on "Grey Market Goods" by Gesmer Updegrove LLP from 2006. Excerpts from No Prohibition on Imports Where Common Ownership Exists Between U.S. Trademark Holder and Foreign Service by Knobbe Martens Olson & Bear LLP. Article about parallel imports titled Exceptions to the Exhaustion Rule by Ladas & Parry from 2001 Parallel Imports and Copyright Law, by Paul D. Supnik, discusses Quality King Distributors, Inc. v. L'Anza Research International Supreme Court decision. Parallel Imports, a lengthy article about parallel imports and the Quality King decision by Lynda J. Zadra-Symes and Joseph J. Basista, May 1998. A very detailed article.