ABSTRACT
Before exploring the impact of Europe on intellectual property it is desirable to specify what it is that we mean by Europe in this context. The European Commission took the view that the use of the national right in such circumstances was an anti-competitive device caught by Art. 85(1) and constituted therefore, an abusive use of their intellectual property rights. The applicability of the principle of exhaustion of rights to copyright and analogous rights was decided by the Deutsche Gramophone Case itself. In the view of the European Court issues did arise for their consideration since the prohibition on the use of the trade mark in Germany amounted to a provision having equivalent effect to a quantitative restriction under the terms of Art. 30. In the absence of a properly developed legislative system it fell to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to evolve the jurisprudence under which, however inadequately, the conflicting thrust of the Treaty provisions might be reconciled.
