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While in some instances color is capable of trademark protection, such as the use of pink insulation for Owens-Corning, Cheerios recently was unable to protect the color yellow for its Cheerios boxes.

In just a few months, the landscape for registering scandalous, immoral and disparaging mark bars has been entirely changed.

Under U.S. Copyright law, and particularly 17 U.S.C. § 109, the legal purchaser of a work protected by a copyright has been allowed to resell that work pursuant to the "first sale" doctrine. The buyer could not make copies and sell them, but could legally resell the original work.

In contrast, 17 U.S.C. § 602 mandates certain restrictions upon the importation in the United States of copyrighted works acquired outside the United States, without the authority of the owner of copyright.

Kirtsaeng had moved from Thailand to attend college in the United States. While attending college, and to lower the cost of textbooks, his family legally bought textbooks in Thailand, and shipped them to Kirtsaeng in the United States. Kirtsaeng then resold those books at a profit.