The battle between those for and those against design right protection for auto body parts which has been developing over the last couple of years in France has recently moved to Brussels and to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

The initial version of the report on the Cars 2020 Plan included a proposal to remove design protection for spare body parts. The final version of the report ultimately renounced this idea preferring to carry out a more in-depth review of the different national regulations.

This is a welcome turn of events. We have on several occasions in this blog expressed our view that the removal of design right protection for car body parts makes no sense at all. At a time when France and Europe are experiencing unprecedented commercial competition on a global scale, the removal of one of the main components of non-price competitiveness in the industry would be suicidal and absurd. It is therefore a good thing that the report of the European Parliament has not fallen into step with the currently prevalent demagoguery regarding car body parts.