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AASP/New Jersey to Kick Off 35th Annual NORTHEAST Trade Show March 9 The Alliance of Automotive Service Providers of New Jersey (AASP/NJ) will hold their 35th annual NORTHEAST™ trade show March 9, 10 and 11 at the Meadowlands Exposition Center of Secaucus, NJ. The association announced the educational seminar schedule as well as a list of booth exhibitors. The weekend will start on March 9, with a Leadership Forum held by SCRS and the AASP/NJ. The East Coast Resolution Forum welcomes representatives from national and local automotive repair associations on March 9 at 1 p.m. The forum will go
until 5 p.m. and will invite association leaders to discuss updates on their organizations’ activities as well as share industry news with their peers. The meeting provides associations from across the country with a chance to network and learn from other associations. Then at 6pm, Mark Olson of VeriFacts starts the NORTHEAST™ seminars with “Shop Differentiation: How to Make Your Shop Stand Out, followed by Future Cure’s Tom Beck presenting Drying Waterborne: What You Need to Know NOW.” Larry See NORTHEAST, Page 61
New York State Collision Tech’s Association Writes to West Virginia AG Re ARA Complaint
McGraw to stop using the term “junkyard parts” because the group feels it’s derogatory and misleading toward its members’ products. The original reference was made by McGraw in a December 2011 press release announcing legal action against Liberty Mutual Insurance. In the memo the Attorney General’s office referred to recycled/salvage parts as “junkyard parts” and implied that recycled/salvaged parts are significantly inferior to new OE parts. “We believe that this statement [implies] that salvaged, used and/or reconditioned parts are somehow unSee NYSCTA, Page 6
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Mike Orso, President of the New York State Collision Tech’s Association (NYSCTA), has written a letter to W Va’s Attorney General Darrell McGraw expressing gratitude for his efforts in “protecting consumers relative to the sale and installation of, industry referred to; used, salvage, and junkyard-supplied parts.” The letter is in response to the Automotive Recycler’s Association’s (ARA) complaint regarding McGraw’s use of the term “junkyard parts” to characterize general salvage parts. The comments and the lawsuit drew the attention of the Automotive Recyclers Association, which asked
VOL. 1 ISSUE 12 MARCH 2012
State Farm’s Testing of Parts Ordering System Among News, Discussion at CIC Meeting by John Yoswick
Speaking at the January Collision Industry Conference (CIC) in Palm Springs, State Farm’s George Avery said that PartsTrader, the electronic parts ordering system the insurer expects it will eventually require its Select Service shops to use, is currently being tested at one repair facility and soon will be at another location. He declined to identify the shops, saying that it is too early in the testing “to put those folks under the microscope and ask, ‘What do you think of the new system?’” The announcement was just one of the parts-related issues discussed at CIC. The CIC “Parts and Materials Committee” shared the results of a preliminary survey of 11 of the com-
panies offering electronic parts locating and procurement systems to the industry. Committee member Mary Lou Lubrano of Car-Part.com reported, for example, that about the same number of those companies Ron Reichen, said insurers pay Oregon Shop for use of their Owner, said systems as those carriers’ reported that said they are return rates don’t appear to match up funded by parts with those reported vendors; two of by vendors the companies said shops pay for the systems. “I would argue that shops pay for all of them, because having nine disSee CIC Report, Page 18
U.S. House Judiciary Members Introduce Auto Parts Bill, Aims to Limit Parts Patent Protection The Promoting Automotive Repair, Trade and Sales (PARTS) Act, a new bill introduced to the U.S. House of Representatives, proposes to reduce the patent period car companies have on their collision repair parts from 14 years to 2.5 years (30 months). H.R. 3889 was introduced on Feb. 2 by Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) and Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) to the House Judiciary Committee. A similar bill is currently being prepared in cooperation with the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee. The bill would amend title 35 of current U.S. design patent law whereby automotive manufacturers may enforce their design patents on collision repair parts against alternative suppliers. Both members serve on the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, Competition and the Internet. Lofgren introduced auto parts patent legisla-
tion in the last Congress. The new subsection reads as follows: “It shall not be an act of infringement of such design patent to make or offer to sell within the United States, or import into the United States, any article of manufacture that is similar or the same in appearance to the component part that is claimed in such design patent if the purpose of such article of manufacture is for the repair of a motor vehicle so as to restore such vehicle to its appearance as originally manufactured; and after the expiration of a period of 30 months beginning on the first day on which any such component part is first offered to the public for sale as part of a motor vehicle in any country, it shall not be an act of infringement of such design patent to use or sell within the United States any article of manufacture that is similar or the same in apSee PARTS bill, Page 13
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