John Wiley & Sons - Kirtsaeng V. John Wiley & Sons

Kirtsaeng V. John Wiley & Sons

In 2012, Thailand native Supap Kirtsaeng filed a case against John Wiley & Sons over the sale of reimported text books. The case has been accepted for argument before the US Supreme Court. It addresses issues unresolved in Omega S.A. v. Costco Wholesale Corp. (2008, affirmed by Supreme Court 2010).

When Kirtsaeng came to America in 1997 to study at Cornell University, he discovered that Wiley textbooks were considerably more expensive to buy in the United States than in his home country. He then asked his relatives from Thailand to buy such books at home and ship them to him. He sold the reimported books on eBay, "making upward of $1.2 million, according to court documents." Subsequently, Wiley sued Kirtsaeng for copyright infringement but admitted that they charged more for books sold on the home market than for those sold abroad. Kirtsaeng in turn referred to the first-sale doctrine, a clause in the United States copyright which enables residents of the United States to resell legally obtained objects without asking for the copyright owner's permission. Arguments in the Kirtsaeng case were scheduled to be heard on October 29, 2012.