But in recent weeks, a great deal of attention has been given to a group of companies that is trying to circumvent those patents so they can manufacture knock-off parts. Why is this a bad thing for our industry?
Many of you who are reading this hold patents. I do, and let me tell you — it was an expensive and painful process getting that patent. Patent holders drive the world economy. Many of you have taken a single patent and built your empire on it.
The other night I was at a meeting of the group of NAPA AutoCare Centers I helped found. Over the years, we've built this group into a pretty powerful marketing co-op. During the meeting, the NAPA brake rep was proudly showing off a new line of brake pads that he said the company held an "exclusive patent on for the next five years." He told us nobody else could make them and NAPA would be able to dominate the market with its new design. I thought to myself: "Cool! They had a great idea, performed the R&D to make it work and now are reaping the rewards."
Therefore, if companies are successful in circumventing patents on OE manufacturer designs, how will NAPA keep its competitors from circumventing its patent and short-term market dominance — both of which make its investment worthwhile? I don't think it can. For that matter, how does anyone who is an innovator have a chance of recovering his or her investment? It reminds me of a line from the recent movie "Iron Man," where the bad guy asks Tony Stark: "Just because you have an idea, you don't think it belongs to you, do you?"
The long and short of it is that parts options drive this industry. These options make it viable to keep some cars on the road. They allow owners to personalize their rides. They allow us to make vehicles do things the manufacturers never intended or imagined. We have to be very careful what mechanisms we create to support those options, because we are not the only ones we have to consider. The American economy is driven by innovation. Loss of return on investment for that innovation will undermine the drive to innovate.
I believe it is naïve to think that you can create an exception to patent law in just this one case and not expect lawyers to find ways to make it apply to other patents. And, if the exception is allowed, I think that investors looking for a return on their investment will be disinclined to put their money into new technologies — limiting inventions to top secret Howard Hughes-like developments and making it very difficult for boot strap companies to be able to pull up high enough to get off the ground.
"Just because you have an idea you don't think it belongs to you, do you?" I hope the answer to that remains "yes" for all our sakes.
Donny Seyfer is a second-generation repair shop owner and ASE Master Technician. An active industry educator, Seyfer hosts two automotive radio shows, serves as chairman of the Automotive Service Association of Colorado, works nationally to help repair shops with IT and service information utilization and writes for Motor Age, a sister publication of Aftermarket Business.
