First-Sale Doctrine

The first-sale doctrine is a principle of United States intellectual property law that limits the ability of a copyright or trademark owner to control what happens to a copy of a protected work after that copy has been lawfully sold. It rests on the idea that the distribution right of the copyright owner in a particular physical copy is exhausted once that copy changes hands through an authorized sale, which is what makes libraries, video rental businesses, used bookstores, and other resale markets for lawfully purchased copyrighted goods possible. The Supreme Court first recognized the principle in 1908 in Bobbs-Merrill Co. v. Straus, rejecting an attempt by a publisher to control the retail price of its books through a printed notice, and holding that the exclusive statutory right to vend a work extends only to its first sale; Congress then wrote the rule into the Copyright Act of 1909. The doctrine is now codified at 17 U.S.C. Section 109(a), and it allows the buyer of a lawfully made copy to resell, lend, or give it away without permission from the copyright owner, though the buyer still may not make new copies of the work.