On ”World Intellectual Property Day” the automotive industry speaks out in favor of protecting innovations
VDA: Commercial property rights should be safeguarded
Frankfurt am Main, 25 April 2008. On "World Intellectual Property Day" the German Association of the Automotive Industry (VDA) calls on the German Government, the European Commission and the European Parliament to introduce lasting safeguards to protect the industry's commercial property rights against product piracy. "The threatened removal of industrial property rights in industrialized countries is not acceptable. It greatly endangers automotive value creation, the competitiveness of our companies and therefore also jobs in this key industry," emphasized Matthias Wissmann, President of the VDA. An "arbitrary cut" in the protection of intellectual property rights relating to design, as planned by the EU, must be avoided at all events, otherwise there might be a second step with patents as "the next victim."
For the automotive industry "World Intellectual Property Day" means worldwide recognition of the outstanding role played by patents, utility models, brands and designs in research and development by this industry. Wissmann underscored: "Industrial property rights are essential in the EU and on all the important markets for the success of the German manufacturers' and suppliers' export business." He added that a unilateral reduction in patents or design protection rights was therefore unacceptable.
The proposal from the European Commission and the resolution recently passed by the European Parliament on abolishing design protection for parts in the EU sends completely the wrong signal to the automotive industry, and also to the emerging markets. Wissmann continued: "This devalues the effort we put into research and development. Furthermore, it encourages all product pirates in the emerging markets, whose governments are at this time building up their legal systems to protect intellectual property."
High-quality spare parts also benefit the customers of the automotive industry when it comes to vehicle repairs. For example experts in the insurance business have found that repairs with copied components often require costly extra work later on because the parts used do not fit properly. Wissmann emphasized, "It would be mistaken to suppose that abolishing design protection would bring down the costs of repairs." Particularly in the EU it was much more the case that the costs of parts and repairs, and the level of insurance premiums, would certainly not work out to be lower where there was no design protection for the parts. In addition, consumers would have to worry that cheap copies might not fulfill the high safety standards in the same way as original parts produced at home.
Wissmann stressed: "Quality is necessary for success in business. And without investment in research and development there will not be any technical progress. Precisely for this reason we need protection for intellectual property - in Germany and on all the other markets."
