Spares Repairs And Intellectual Property Rights

Although supplying spare and replacement parts and providing repair services form the basis of many legitimate businesses, many manufacturing enterprises seek to augment the competitive advantage realized at the market stage of selling their main products by attempting to monopolize the market for spares, repairs and refills. Increasingly, companies are using intellectual property laws to devise up-front business strategies to gain exclusive rights in the components of their products. This is the first in-depth analysis of the law in this relatively new and rapidly developing area of practice. It sheds clear light on the conflicting interests of manufacturers, consumers, spare parts makers and the general public; explores the extent to which this kind of business strategy can be more or less successful with respect to the different rights involved, and in different jurisdictions; and highlights the competition issues that inevitably arise. The essays included are revised and updated versions of papers presented at the seventh (2006) of the innovative IP conference organized annually by the Macau Institute of European Studies (IEEM) on intellectual property law and the economic challenges for Asia. Among the topics and issues covered are the following: ; notions of and‘repairand’ and and‘recycleand’ and their legal effects; the limits of IP rights in relation to repair and recycle; legal limits of end user licence agreements (EULAs) and technological protection measures (TPMs); patent exhaustion on repair and recycling; alteration of product and‘identityand’; the concept of and‘indirectand’ or and‘contributoryand’ infringement; design law strategies; and secondary market definitions. The authors give detailed attention to cases in various jurisdictions that have guided and continue to guide business strategies in the field. Jurisdictions treated include the EU, the US, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Korea. In its clarification of the limits and possibilities of business strategies in this area of competition that is just beginning to attract attention, this book will be of great value not only to intellectual property law practitioners but to business people in nearly any field of production, especially where cross-border marketing is involved.

This publication examines the legal aspects of the spare parts market from an IP perspective: specifically whether design protection for spare parts of a complex product extends to the spare part aftermarket, or whether that market should remain open to competition. The stakeholders’ equally weighty arguments that must be balanced against are, on the one hand, the property interest in an earned IP right in the design of the part; and on the other, enhanced competition, likely reflected in lower prices. The mounting tension between these two positions is manifest an increased number of lawsuits in both the US and the EU. This book provides a discussion of the legal issues involved in this debate from a global perspective, with special focus on the EU and the US. Part I contextualizes the legal debate by discussing the historical background, the competitive situation and the respective stakeholder positions. Part II examines the relevant legal questions on a comparative basis, evaluating the likelihood of its adoption in the jurisdictions examined. Concluding that adoption is unlikely, Part III proposes a number of possible considerations meant to further compromise. Part IV concludes with a future outlook, specifically in light of the impact of technological development on this market.

This book considers the intellectual property issues which are raised by space activities. While outer space itself remains out of reach for most of us, the results of space activities and developments from space technology are becoming ever-more integrated in our daily lives. Despite this, there is often little understanding of the importance of space technologies, how existing legal rules may apply in terms of protecting the technology, or whether legal protection, such as copyright, may be enforced if the unauthorised use takes place beyond conventional territorial borders in outer space.

The fast-evolving relationship between the promotion of welfare-enhancing competition and the balanced protection of intellectual property (IP) rights has attracted the attention of policymakers, analysts and scholars. This interest is inevitable in an environment that lays ever greater emphasis on the management of knowledge and innovation and on mechanisms to ensure that the public derives the expected social and economic benefits from this innovation and the spread of knowledge. This book looks at the positive linkage between IP and competition in jurisdictions around the world, surveying developments and policy issues from an international and comparative perspective. It includes analysis of key doctrinal and policy issues by leading academics and practitioners from around the globe and a cutting-edge survey of related developments across both developed and developing economies. It also situates current policy developments at the national level in the context of multilateral developments, at WIPO, WTO and elsewhere.

Intellectual Property Rights as Obstacles to Legitimate Trade helps to understand one of the underlying rationales of the TRIPS Agreement in light of some of the most pertinent IP issues. The WTO/TRIPS Agreement for the first time put IP rights in the context of trade rules, such as when does the exercise of IP rights become an unjustified burden to legitimate trade? Cases have arisen where IP rights are conferred, used, or enforced in a manner that arguably impedes trade, both in domestic and international contexts. This groundbreaking book is the first comprehensive assessment of this controversial area of trade law, shedding important new light on the underlying rationales of the TRIPS Agreement. With contributions by both practitioners and academics working in a range of countries, this book considers thorny issues in such areas as the following: – interpretation of ‘obstacles to legitimate trade’ in the context of GATT/ WTO jurisprudence; – separating markets by preventing parallel importation in the context of patents; – geoblocking – territorial separation of digital markets; – using trademarks to prevent competition; – geographical indications – protection of terms that are considered generic in certain domestic markets; – seizure of goods in transit; – ‘evergreening’ patents – attempts to extend the duration of patents; – rights to second-hand digital goods or content; – unjustified threats – towards appropriate standards of liability. Focusing on topical and under-researched areas of IP law, the contributors stimulate a discussion on an overarching concern that is not often addressed – how to assess whether the protection and enforcement of certain IP rights in particular situations should be classified as trade barriers. As an incisive analysis of the desirable balance between the exercise of IP rights and the demands of legitimate trade, this book will be welcomed by practitioners, lawmakers, policy advisers, and academics in both trade law and IP law.

Written by expert scholars and practitioners, this unique Research Handbook presents the state of the art in research on, and the practice of, international design law. Combining cutting-edge research with a practical approach, it examines key trends and covers key cases, regional and national laws, as well as concepts of international design protection. In particular, the U.S. framework is compared with the regime of the EU, and issues relating to the Hague Agreement are also covered.

This is a print on demand edition of a hard to find publication. Under current intellectual property laws, industrial designs (ID) may potentially be protected through design patents, trade dress, and copyright. In addition, the Vessel Hull Design Protection Actestablished a specialized, or sui generis, intellectual property right for the protection of boat hull designs. Some experts argue that the present intellectual property regime does not adequately protect ID. Contents of this report: (1) ID and Intellectual Property: Copyright; Trade Dress; Design Patents; Vessel Hull Design Protection; (2) Current Issues in ID Protection: Intellectual Property Rights in Fashion Designs; U.S. Adherence to the Hague Convention; Auto Spare Parts; Judicial Developments Concerning ID Patents; (3) Issues in Innovation and Competition.

Intellectual Property and Free Trade Agreements presents the papers of the sixth IP conference organised by the Macau Institute of European Studies (IEEM) on intellectual property law and the economic challenges for Asia. The objective of the conferences is to provide up-to-date information on developments in global intellectual property law and policy and their impact on regional economic and cultural development. The current volume deals with the implications of free trade agreements for the international framework of intellectual property law, a topic of enormous economic and legal importance given the increasing number of free trade agreements in force or under negotiation.