Posted on 06/17/2021 5:45:50 AM PDT by Kaslin
Over the course of the last six months, a populist movement to weaken the rights of IP holders has swept across the country. Impacting a cross section of politically diverse states, including California, Texas, Hawaii, and Arkansas, the “right-to-repair” movement and its allies succeeded in introducing flawed legislation that would have devastated the intellectual property rights of innovators by using the levers of state government to advantage one competitor over another. Attacks on IP have become more common, yet they tug at the heart of free markets by using government power to take IP from one to give to another.
In these statehouses, lawmakers considered bills that would undermine innovator intellectual property rights by forcing manufacturers of sophisticated medical devices – from infusion pumps to PET systems - to make freely available propriety service manuals, schematics, training materials and to their third-party servicing business competitors. Government forcing a business to hand over intellectual property to competitors strikes at the heart of our free market system. Rather than foster competition to improve public health by encouraging third-party service businesses to invest in quality and safety, legislators proposed to use state law to socialize intellectual property.
Fortunately, in all of the aforementioned state legislatures, these right-to-repair bills failed – but now is not the time for a victory lap. The political fight between manufacturers and independent servicing organizations will likely continue in the months and years ahead. As such, it will be critical for state lawmakers – and the general public – to understand the drawbacks of the right-to-repair movement’s legislative proposals and take necessary steps to counter these initiatives wherever they may percolate. Here’s why:
With between 16,000 and 21,000 third-party medical device servicers, according to the US Food and Drug Administration in a 2018 report, hospitals and physician practices have ample choice regarding who maintains their devices. They have the option to stick with the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) for servicing, invest in their own in-house bio-medical engineers or hire a third-party service business to do the job. This highly competitive marketplace is flush with businesses to choose from, so leveraging state law to compel one company that heavily invests in the creation of service tools to give away that property to their competitors makes little practical sense. In fact, it’s the definition of cronyism.
Should any future right-to-repair bill be enacted, medical equipment manufacturers, who make significant investments for the implementation of quality control frameworks, training programs and reporting mechanisms to enhance public safety will be faced with a choice: do they risk making their service materials publicly available globally to any actor – or, worse, stop servicing medical device technology in that state altogether? If a manufacturer chooses to leave a state, third-party service businesses, which don’t follow the same quality-management and reporting criteria as original manufacturers, will fill the void, putting medical devices and the patients and providers who interact with them at risk.
These attacks on free enterprise also bring other unintended risks. The potential pitfalls for hospitals and specialty practices that choose to hire third-party servicers are made worse by the absence of any accountability or independent oversight. Unregulated third party servicers are not required to have proper quality or safety controls in place, meaning that if they botch a repair job, somebody else is on the hook for damages.
When functioning properly, medical devices use awe-inspiring forces such as ionizing radiation to diagnose and heal. Servicing these devices requires a deep reservoir of technical expertise. Original manufacturers of medical devices invest in technicians who are trained, certified, and highly knowledgeable. Using the levers of government to force these companies to hand over their investments to competitors undermines free enterprise and puts patients, technicians and physicians at greater risk.
It’s a simple economic rule that the government allows the creator of patents to be rewarded for creating a new technical idea that has never been seen before. The creators who brought us Facebook and iPhones should be rewarded for making everybody’s life a bit better. If no protections were granted to creators, no entrepreneur would bother to invest in new technology. They would know that the investment would be hijacked by copycat businesses if there were no IP protections in law to protect that investment.
Without such laws, there are products that would never come to market. Windows machines would only work with Internet Explorer for example. Windows machines would work with Linux. You would have to buy wiper blades from your car manufacturer.
The focus was farm equipment, not medical devices. The movement is a response to John Deere’s heavy handed policies.
Louis Rossmann, who has a YouTube channel on repairing Apple products, has has long been a right-to-repair advocate. He has frequently discusses how Apple has tried to circumvent and shut down independent computer repair shops.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uWzrZqY_pc
On a related note, the patenting of DNA is something that should have never happened and would never have happened had the USPTO not been overrun with affirmative action know-nothings.
BTW, at the link I provided:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uWzrZqY_pc
Louis Rossmann discussing his views on Right to Repair - not specifically Apple products, but Right to Repair in general. He makes very compelling arguments.
Years ago, auto manufacturers tried to block independent repair shops from access to repair info but the repair shops fought back.
It would have been insane. Not enough dealers to repair all vehicles in the country less than seven years old. Some people would have had to get their vehicles towed 50 miles to a dealer and wait a month or three for the repair to be done and pay thousands of dollars each time.
Now way manufacturers/dealers could have replaced the service that millions of indi shops do.
Massachusetts has it: There’s a lesson there...
Even the CPAP industry is loaded with BS and obfuscation. If you or a loved one has used one for years without needing maintenance, ask yourself what is the plan when it fails. How long will the user be without a machine? How many nights will the user not be able to sleep? What are the chances of this leading to a heart attack or other serious problem?
There’s a relatively simple solution. I hate to quiz people here but let’s see if anyone guesses.
There’s just as much outrage about the med equipment biz as the general repairability question.
BS. Not worthy of FR. This was comment #2, deleted ...
Some CPAP machines are crippled by the manufacturers for marketing reasons. Same hardware can cost a cpl hundred or thousands depending on if they have a feature turned on.
It would be like buying a V8 with only 4 active cylinders. You have a V8. Manufacturer cripples the ECM so that only 4 cylinders fire.
Should you be allowed to put in an aftermarket ECM that allows all 8 to fire?
This isnt about repair at all in the medical arena.
With farm equipment it is and Apple products it is. With the medical device manufacturers it is about removing their hardware crippling via software.
Kaslin, are you a secret moderator here?
Can’t a buyer look into the availability of parts and repair manuals (and also youtube videos) before buying a product?
I thought John Deere did a good job at least supplying parts, but my new mower isn’t a Deere because my town no long has a Deere dealer. I got a Husqvarna from Lowes because the Lowes is close to where I live. It seems to be a nice unit, by the way. It has a sheet metal hood. The Deere had a plastic hood which developed cracks over the years to the point where I removed it.
If there’s a trend to not supply repair materials to users, it’s due in part because most users these days know nothing about how things work or how to fix them.
Or pay a 1000$ to truck his tractor or combine 100 miles to the dealer for diagnostics and replacement of one of dozens of computers, pay the bill and then another 1000$ to get it home...And then maybe, just maybe that WAS the problem, it’s fixed, and he can get on with his work...
Farmers in Nebraska are in court seeking access to diagnostic software so they can troubleshoot their equipment problems themselves without costly transport...They would still get the part from John Deere...
If there’s a trend to not supply repair materials to users, it’s due in part because most users these days know nothing about how things work or how to fix them.
Some people voted for Biden. Just because some people have the IQ of a kumquat, lets not cater to them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson%E2%80%93Moss_Warranty_Act
“Warrantors cannot require that only branded parts be used with the product in order to retain the warranty.[7] This is commonly referred to as the “tie-in sales” provisions[8] and is frequently mentioned in the context of third-party computer parts, such as memory and hard drives.”
The current practice by John Deere and others effectively breaks the Magnuson Moss Act and goes well-beyond it to an infinite amount of future time for which you cannot use even original branded parts without required involvement of the original dealer to let you truly understand what it is you need to replace.
Motor vehicles, outside of tractors, typically use a universal bus to allow access to the diagnostic console YOU ALREADY BOUGHT in your vehicles. This allows you, or any other mechanic, to know what went wrong to fix it.
Any actions that stop these simple actions is truly bizarre and should be slapped down at all levels, unless it's for national security purposes, for some strange reason.
Exactly. Why arrange things for the least capable among us rather than the ones than can accomplish stuff? Stupid idea.
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