Spares market threat
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• The free market in spare parts is threatened by a Bill on Intellectual Property Rights expected around November, according to the Industrial Copyright Reform Association. "We need to be prepared to fight every step of the way," it warns everyone making or marketing spare parts.
The Government's intention to introduce a Bill based on the White Paper (Cmnd 9712) was announced in the Queen's Speech on June 25. "This is extremely bad news for the spare parts industry in Great Britain," says the ICRA.
A Bill based on the original White Paper would mean that the multi-national and other original equipment makers are being given the opportunity to dictate and control the spare parts market for at least five and up to 10 years (with a royalty) of a product's life, says the ICRA. This "is clearly unacceptable to anyone making or marketing spare parts for a wide range of equipment".
"The opinion of the committee of the ICRA and all other trade associations with whom we have been in contact is that we must fight the Bill all the way to obtain a total exclusion for spare parts, not merely a function and fit exception that might apply to some manufacturers," it says.
The ICRA believes MPs will be confused between counterfeiting and copyright, while it, of course, does not agree with counterfeiting — pretending that copies are the original goods, already against existing laws. "However, there is a very great danger that the unregistered design right will be 'sold' on the basis of stopping people copying innovative design when in reality it will protect non-inventive functional designs." The ICRA is at Belward St, Nottingham NG1 1JZ.