The U.S. House Judiciary Subcommittee on Intellectual Property’s hearing on the “Promoting Automotive Repair, Trade, and Sales Act” (PARTS Act) got off to a late start – two hours past the originally scheduled 2:00 pm start time on Tuesday, February 2nd. But it was worth the wait.
Testifying on behalf of the parts industry were Jack Gillis of CAPA and the Consumer Federation of America, and Pat Felder of Felder’s Collisions Part in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Jack and Pat presented the case for the PARTS Act succinctly, laying out the need to protect consumer interests by ensuring that car company design patents cannot be used to eliminate competition in the collision repair parts market.
The PARTS Act is bipartisan legislation to create a narrow exception from design patent infringement for automotive collision repair parts. The ABPA, though its membership in the Quality Parts Coalition (QPC), strongly supports the PARTS Act.
If you logged in to watch the hearing live at 2:00 pm but were disappointed to learn the schedule had changed, you can still watch the recorded proceedings by logging on here.
