The European Commission recently made a proposal of modification of Directive 98/71/EC on the legal protection of designs, in order to remove Member State's option to maintain design protection for vehicle replacement parts (see Article 14 of the Directive).
Under the current regime, "visible" vehicle replacement parts are subject to design protection, and many Member States actually provide for such protection in their national law. This permits vehicle manufacturers to obtain a monopoly in the market of visible replacement parts that are protected by the relevant national legislation.
The modification proposal aims therefore at the opening of the relevant market, allowing independent replacement part manufacturers to compete with the original car manufacturers.
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