Press Releases
DECEMBER 6 , 2007
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Luke Lewis
1.800.353.1274
Quality Parts Coalition Applauds
2007 Most Influential Women in the Collision Repair Industry Winners
Automotive Body Parts Association President Dolores Richardson Recognized
Washington, DC — The Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament has voted unanimously in favor of the Commission-proposed Repair Clause. Adoption of this clause by the European Parliament as a whole and the Council of Ministers, as recommended by the Legal Affairs Committee, will ensure the EU as a whole joins Australia, Belgium, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and the U.K. in ascribing to free competition in the replacement automotive parts market.
If adopted, the directive will strike a balance between protecting intellectual property and ensuring free competition by creating a limited design patent exception for spare parts intended to restore the original appearance of complex products, including automobiles.
"This decision in the European Union represents a tremendous stride toward protecting and promoting competition in the replacement automotive parts market in the EU," said Eileen Sottile, executive director of the Quality Parts Coalition (QPC). "As we work to incorporate a similar automobile parts ‘repair clause' in the U.S. design patent law, the EU decision provides a strong and reasonable precedent for addressing the replacement collision parts design protection issue in the United States."
The number of design patents awarded to the major automobile manufacturers in the United States has dramatically increased during the past five years, representing approximately 20 to 25 percent of the total U.S. patents awarded to those manufacturers. Collision parts account for 50 to 93 percent of the U.S. design patents awarded to the car companies. Without a permanent solution, such as a "repair clause," automaker design patent cases could eliminate the entire alternative replacement collision parts industry, thus removing competition in the marketplace.
The QPC, which represents the interests of the independent parts industry, the repair industry, the insurance industry and consumers, is asking Congress to establish a repair clause in U.S. design patent law. Like the European Commission Legal Affairs Committee-approved directive, the amendment would specify that the making and use of a matching exterior auto part for purposes of repair to a vehicle is not an act of infringement.
For more information, visit www.qualitypartscoalition.com
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The Quality Parts Coalition represents the interests of the independent parts industry, the repair industry, the insurance industry and consumers. It is the goal of the Quality Parts Coalition to develop and secure a permanent legislative change to U.S. design patent law to preserve competition and to protect the consumer's right to benefit from quality, lower-cost alternative replacement parts.