The Right to Repair Reckoning: IP Limits on Post Sale Product Control

68 questions on the right to repair reckoning, answered and cited by the UpLaw editorial team.

• Can a manufacturer avoid repair obligations by leasing instead of selling?
• Can a manufacturer refuse to disclose repair information by calling it a trade secret?
• Can a manufacturer's repair restriction be an antitrust violation?
• Can an independent shop advertise that it repairs a particular brand?
• Can a patent stop me from repairing something I own?
• Can I resell refurbished branded goods without infringing the trademark?
• Can the same repair be lawful in one state and blocked in another?
• Do all circuits accept Chamberlain's infringement-nexus requirement?
• Does a repair statute's existence mean a manufacturer must hand over everything?
• Does having an independent shop fix my device void the warranty?
• Does patent exhaustion let a third party manufacture patented replacement parts?
• Does Section 1202 of the DMCA matter in repair disputes?
• Does the EU Right to Repair Directive apply to U.S. manufacturers?
• Has Congress passed a federal right-to-repair law?
• Have courts dismissed DMCA claims where circumvention served repair?
• How did the automotive sector's repair fight foreshadow the electronics fight?
• How did the pandemic affect the medical-device repair debate?
• How do all the right-to-repair doctrines fit together?
• How does DMCA Section 1201 restrict repair?
• How does the EU Directive tilt consumers toward repair rather than replacement?
• How do I tell whether a rebuild crosses from repair into reconstruction?
• How do manufacturers use trademark law to control repair?
• How do state repair statutes solve the DMCA trafficking problem?
• How long must a manufacturer keep repair materials available?
• How should an aftermarket parts maker brand its products?
• Is it legal to bypass a manufacturer's software lock to repair a device?
• Is parts pairing illegal nationwide?
• Is there a single national right to repair in the United States?
• Was New York the first state to pass an electronics right-to-repair law?
• What are the environmental stakes of the right-to-repair movement?
• What are the four intellectual property levers manufacturers use to control repair?
• What are the limits on antitrust claims against repair restrictions?
• What did Automotive Body Parts Association v. Ford hold about design patents on repair parts?
• What did Impression Products v. Lexmark decide?
• What did Lexmark v. Static Control hold about printer authentication locks?
• What did the FTC's 2024 warning letters target?
• What did the FTC's Nixing the Fix report conclude?
• What distinct legal exposure do aftermarket parts manufacturers carry?
• What does it mean that a DMCA exemption legalizes the act but not the tool?
• What does the EU Right to Repair Directive require?
• What is parts pairing?
• What is patent exhaustion and how does it affect repair?
• What is the difference between permissible repair and impermissible reconstruction?
• What is the DMCA “trafficking trap” for independent repairers?
• What is the European Repair Information Form?
• What is the FTC's lawsuit against Deere about?
• What is the right-to-repair movement actually fighting about?
• What is the “telematics phase” of the repair fight?
• What is the underlying principle courts and legislatures are applying to repair restrictions?
• What legitimate interests can still justify a repair restriction?
• What principle do Lexmark and Chamberlain establish for repair?
• What repair-related DMCA exemptions has the Copyright Office granted?
• What should a manufacturer audit to assess its right-to-repair exposure?
• What should an independent repair shop do to operate safely under the new regime?
• What should consumers do about repair rights?
• What two filters should a manufacturer run every software lock through?
• When does a technological measure “effectively control access” under the DMCA?
• When does the trademark first-sale defense fail for a refurbisher?
• Where is right-to-repair law heading?
• Which repair-related trade-secret claims are genuinely contested?
• Which states have enacted electronics right-to-repair statutes?
• Why did Apple change its position on right to repair?
• Why does LKQ v. GM matter for aftermarket repair parts?
• Why does the common law dislike restraints on what a buyer may do with goods?
• Why do manufacturers' trade-secret objections to repair laws often fail?
• Why do manufacturers want to control repair of products they have already sold?
• Why do the newest repair statutes target parts pairing specifically?
• Why is Deere the emblem of the right-to-repair movement?