On December 2, 2016, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari to review the en banc decision of the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals in Lexmark v. Impression.

The Federal Circuit held that, unlike the situation in U.S. copyright law, there is no exhaustion of U.S. patent rights when the patent owner sells the patented product outside the United States.  Also, the right to enforce the patent against downstream purchasers of a patented product originally put on the market in the United States by the patent owner, was not exhausted if the original purchaser had breached a lawful restriction on its sale of the product when releasing the product into the stream of commerce.

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