First Sale Doctrine
What does "First Sale Doctrine" mean in law?
The first sale doctrine, codified in 17 U.S.C. section 109(a) for copyright and applied through common law in trademark, provides that once the copyright or trademark owner has sold a lawfully made copy of a work or a genuine trademarked product, the purchaser may resell, lend, or otherwise dispose of that particular copy without the rights holder's permission. This doctrine is the legal foundation for used bookstores, libraries' lending operations, and secondary markets for goods. The doctrine limits only the distribution right; it does not authorize the purchaser to reproduce the work. In the digital context, courts have generally declined to extend the first sale doctrine to digital files because their transfer necessarily involves making a new copy.
Definition
The first sale doctrine, codified in 17 U.S.C. section 109(a) for copyright and applied through common law in trademark, provides that once the copyright or trademark owner has sold a lawfully made copy of a work or a genuine trademarked product, the purchaser may resell, lend, or otherwise dispose of that particular copy without the rights holder's permission. This doctrine is the legal foundation for used bookstores, libraries' lending operations, and secondary markets for goods. The doctrine limits only the distribution right; it does not authorize the purchaser to reproduce the work. In the digital context, courts have generally declined to extend the first sale doctrine to digital files because their transfer necessarily involves making a new copy.
Example
A student who purchases a hardcover casebook can resell it to another student at the end of the semester without the publisher's permission, because the first sale doctrine exhausts the publisher's distribution right over that particular copy.