The Exhaustion of trademark rights is one of the pillars of the merchandise free circulation system within the European Union. This is shown both by the community legislation and by the highest jurisprudence and qualified doctrine.
European countries have promoted and developed such institution that has also been adopted by several Latin American legislations as is the case of the countries that make up the Andean Community, being Ecuador among them; they have common regulations in terms of Industrial Property, which includes exhaustion since Decision 311 of the Commission for the Cartagena Accords, replicated in Decision 486 currently in force.
Different from what happens in the European Union, the courts of South America have little jurisprudence on Exhaustion of trademark rights mainly due to the fact that the region integration processes are in an earlier status than those of the old continent.
