Kirtsaeng v. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

John Wiley & Sons (Wiley) (plaintiff) published textbooks both in the U.S. and, through a foreign subsidiary, in Asia, where the books' copyright notices restricted authorized sale to certain foreign regions. Supap Kirtsaeng (defendant), a college and later PhD student in the U.S., had friends and family buy legally sold Asian-edition textbooks in Thailand and ship them to him, and he resold them in the U.S. at prices below the American editions; Wiley sued for copyright infringement based on its exclusive distribution right, and both the district court and the appellate court held the first-sale doctrine's defense did not apply because the books were manufactured abroad, prompting Kirtsaeng's petition for certiorari.