iords open up the ,pare parts business
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HOUSE of Lords has .ed the way for parts tufacturers to break de builders copyrights of C parts for their products. he five Law Lords last k allowed an appeal by istrong Parts against an nction stopping it infring
B L s copyright of sings of exhaust systems the Morris Marina car.
he judgment has much 7e far reaching significance will permit companies to ik into the 1:450 million a r commercial vehicle parts -ket and threaten dealers' :s business.
t says that a vehicle ner's right to be able to parts in an unrestricted rket prevails over the icle manufacturer's rights use its copyright to mainits monopoly.
.ord Bridge said that exist sustems need to be re placed more often than many other car parts and the replacement exhausts market is one of the most important and lucrative.
By copying BL exhausts from actual systems, rather than from drawings, Armstrong had indirectly infringed BL's copyright, hut had refused to pay royalties.
As the owner has a right to produce copies of exhaust pipes in its own workshop or by instructing a local blacksmith to do so, the realities of mass production mean that the owner should have freedom to buy the parts in an unrestricted market. ruled Lord Bridge.
"To allow BL to enforce its copyright to maintain a monopoly for itself and its licensees is to detract from the owner's rights and, at least potentially, the value of their cars," he added.
"There is an inconsistency between marketing cars and thereby creating whatever rights attach to their ownership, and acting to restrain the free exercise of those rights. The law does not countenance such inconsistellcies.'' Lord 'fempleman said if the BL injunction had been granted, it followed that any vehicle owner must buy spares from BL at prices fixed by BL or bear the burden of a royalty payable to BE for the privilege of buying spares from somebody else.
The purchaser of a BL vehicle, he commented, would "sell his soul to the company store".
Leyland Parts is still estimating the effects the ruling may have on the truck parts business.