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:

;

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notions of 'repair' and 'recycle' and their legal effects;

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the limits of IP rights in relation to repair and recycle;

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legal limits of end user licence agreements (EULAs) and technological
protection measures (TPMs);

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patent exhaustion on repair and recycling;

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alteration of product 'identity';

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the concept of 'indirect' or 'contributory' infringement;

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design law strategies; and

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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.