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works.” Similarly, Article 98 of the IP Laws of Lao PDR states the author or copyright
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owner “shall have the exclusive right to carry out or authorize the importation or
exportation of the original or any copy of the work.” Moreover, Article 98 gives the
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author or copyright owner of literary and artistic works the exclusive right of “reproducing

such work in any manner or form including distribution of copies of such works.”
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Because the importation of unauthorized articles is prohibited, the national laws seem
to refer to the first national distribution, even though neither countries’ laws specifically

address where the sales or transfer occurred. The same applies in Vietnam, where the
Law on Intellectual Property provides that the authors shall have exclusive rights to
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“distribute or import original works or copies thereof.” The principle of national
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exhaustion is further confirmed under Article 28, which specifies that the acts of
“exporting, importing or distributing copies of works without permission of copyright

holders” constitute copyright infringement.
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In Malaysia, the leading interpretation also favors national exhaustion. Section

36(2) of the Copyright Act provides that the “[c]opyright is infringed by any person
who, without the consent or licence of the owner of the copyright, imports an article
into Malaysia for the purpose of … (b) distributing the article … (c) by way of trade,

exhibiting the article in public, where he knows or ought reasonably to know that the
making of the article was carried out without the consent or licence of the owner of the

copyright.” Moreover, Section 13(1)(e) grants copyright owners the exclusive right
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to the “distribution of copies to the public by sale or other transfer of ownership.” The
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Copyright Amendment Act of 2000 additionally clarified that “the exclusive right to

90 Id. at art. 21.
91 Lao People’s Democratic Republic Intellectual Property Laws (Law No. 01/NA of 20 December 2011)
(Lao PDR).
92 Id. at art. 98.
93 Id.
94 Law on Intellectual Property (No. 50/2005/QH11 of Nov. 29, 2005) (Vietnam).
95 Id., at art. 20.
96 Id., at art. 28.
97 Copyright Act 1987 Act 332 § 36(2) (Malaysia).
98 Id. at § 13(1)(e).

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