Replica wheels

[philipwalker]

Having a chat the other day, with one on my wheel supplier, he mentioned the recent judgment awarded to Mercedes Benz against a few of the UK replica wheels suppliers.
Its my understanding the judgment was awarded as copyright/trademark was breached and the defendants (a number of the larger wheel suppliers) will have to pay an undisclosed amount in damages to Mercedes Benz.

I would think this will have implications to replica Audi VW wheels for the folloing reasons
1. The legal firm will probably offer/tout their services to other manufactures/importers such as the VW group, as they won this case and they could win a further case if a precidence has been set.
2. The leading suppliers will have had their fingers burt with the level of damages paid to MB and are therfore unwilling to chance selling replica wheels again.

Their are some implications this judgment has raised, firstly what parts can be copied. Replacment componants such as waterpumps, brake pads, wheel bearings etc. Would these items be classed the same?

[s4woody]

thats a good point ,but alot of replacement parts if not all fitted to cars ie pads ,waterpumps etc are made under license with a percentage going to the major car company's..
i no that you can use merc parts that are considerably cheaper but made under there license and still retain there warrenty so you get a cheaper repair bill but get full MB cover..but we will wait and see how this 1 goes...

[shineydave]

i was always under the impression that original parts had a copyright but after a certain length of time the copyright expired opening the doors for the aftermarket manufacturers to begin manufacture.