That first sale has to be legal for the subsequent resales to be legal. Plus we’re not talking about (domestic) resales here, the topic at hand is questionable imports of products never intended for sale in the U.S. off Aliexpress.
> U.S. Supreme Court Holds that Books Printed and Sold Abroad May Be Freely Resold in the U.S. Because the Copyrights Are Exhausted Under the First-Sale Doctrine
Now do sale of region-free DVD players in the U.S.
In any case, it’s perfectly legal for me to make and sell a geo-locked device in another country, and it is the importer’s problem if fails to work elsewhere. That doesn’t tend to happen with physical books, obviously.
Post-sale disabling of inverter devices is different than lack of support. The Supreme Court case on textbooks arose from profits on textbook arbitrage. New device-related caselaw will depend on a plaintiff that makes enough from device arbitrage to fund a lawsuit.
