The specific subject-matter of the right
The greatest defect in the existence/exercise distinction is that it is too vague to be of much use by itself. It provides no guidance as to when the exercise of the right will fall foul of Articles 28 and 30. Those who criticize the European Court of Justice on this ground are perhaps being a little harsh. They are ascribing to the distinction ambitions which it never pretended to have. It was never meant to solve, by itself, all the problems that arise as a result of the conflict between intellectual property rights and the free movement of goods. In fact, it is doubtful whether it was meant to solve any specific problem.
Keywords: European Court of Justice, Article 28, Article 30, intellectual property rights, free movement of goods, existence/exercise dichotomy
Oxford Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us .