Overview

The main battlefield is spare parts for cars. This matter
has so far not been resolved on the European level even
if there are some attempts to introduce a “repair clause”
aimed at opening up the spare parts market in the EU.
Poland decided to wait no longer and introduced its own
repair clause into the Polish Act of 30 June 2000 on
Industrial Property Law (IPL) on 1 November 2007. It
fundamentally breaks up the monopoly conferred by
industrial designs registered with the Polish Patent
Office. This amendment also complies with Directive
98/71/EC concerning the legal protection of industrial
designs, which allows member states to introduce
changes to their legal systems to liberate the spare
parts market (a freeze-plus clause).