India adopts a rule of international exhaustion, so that patented goods lawfully sold abroad by the…

Article 6 provides that, for dispute settlement and subject to Articles 3 and 4, "nothing in this Agreement shall be used to address the issue of the exhaustion of intellectual property rights". Paragraph 5(d) of the Doha Declaration confirms that each Member is "free to establish its own regime for such exhaustion without challenge", so "India's regime cannot be challenged as such" if it respects MFN and national treatment. Footnote 6 makes the Article 28 importation right subject to Article 6, so the patentee's right is not absolute.