Car parts such as sealed beam headlamps, bumpers, wing mirrors, and the like are the fruits of the labour of car designers. As such, they are protected by copyright in some jurisdictions and as registered designs in others.
Whereas it is clearly legitimate for one car manufacturer to develop and protect a ‘look’, car owners are often forced to fork out very large sums to purchase parts authorized by the car manufacturer, and the price of the whole is very much less than the sum of the parts.
Essentially, there is competition between car manufacturers for clients, but a monopolistic regime exists where one needs to replace a hub or headlamp. For the three or four years where there is a warranty, car manufacturers can legitimately require authentic parts, but after that time, when things tend to go wrong anyway, one could argue that the public good is to allow competition in the market.
Britain, Italy and Spain allow consumers to buy look-alike spare parts, whereas other countries do not.
Now the European Union is considering relaxing intellectual property rights on car parts. Germany, France, Czechoslovakia and Romania are against the reforms. nevertheless, they passed a first reading in the European Parliament, albeit, with a five years grace period for member states to implement the rule.
As a Citroen owner with lousy driving skills, I tend to side with the public good in this regard, but do think it important that spare parts should be clearly labeled as “certified by the manufacturer” or “non-certified equivalent”, and think this should be cast into plastic parts.
I am unaware of any Israel court rulings on the subject.
