Property law in the automotive industry

The German and international automotive industry is entirely dependent on comprehensive and unrestricted commercial property protection. Of course, this also applies to many other sectors of the industrial economy whose innovations are marketed nationally and internationally. Commercial property protection thus forms an important basis for international trade (see, for example, the WTO TRIPS Agreement). Most industrialized and emerging countries therefore have a well-developed national system of industrial property protection, even if the standard of enforcement is not at the same level in all countries. It remains an important concern that developing countries also join up here, and, above all, with internationally existing standards of protection. If an adequate system of commercial property protection is lacking in certain foreign markets, there are considerably higher business risks for investments, manufacturing, and the marketing of motor vehicles and parts.

The importance of commercial property laws lies in the protection of inventive, creative, distinctive, and advertising efforts in the field. In the technical field, this protects industrial innovations and thus also enables their financial exploitation.

The basis of commercial property protection in Germany and abroad is a body of special laws and conventions (international agreements) that protect certain industrial efforts in the area of civil law. Internationally, there is no uniform definition of industrial property protection (one rather speaks of "intellectual property protection"). In Germany, this term essentially covers patent, utility model, design patent, trademark, and copyright law.