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Europeans and Canadians with busted iPhones will soon be able to swerve the Genius Bar and associated lengthy waiting lists, as Apple expands its Independent Repair Provider (IRP) program to third party technicians.
The IRP scheme authorised independent businesses to perform out-of-warranty repairs on iPhones using genuine Apple components — such as displays and batteries.
Repair facilities will be able to use third-party components and set their own prices, but must inform customers when they're using genuine Apple parts - which would hit anyone trying to use aftermarket TouchID sensor replacements and the like. Any salvaged parts must be returned to Apple, where they'll either be refurbished or recycled.
Apple said it will also provide training, service guides, and other resources — although repair providers will be compelled to keep these confidential.
This comes a month after Norway's Supreme Court upheld a ruling that a local repair shop violated Apple's trademark by using an unauthorised screen to fit a customer's iPhone.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 09 2020, @04:45PM (1 child)
No, the court did not rule that unauthorized screens violate trademarks.
The court found that the replacement screens contained non-Apple parts that did not come from Apple's production line, yet were imprinted with Apple branding anyway and that this fake branding violated Apple's trademarks. This was not a case of refurbished screens containing real Apple branding bsimply ecause they contained parts pulled from real Apple products.
Now the repair shop was really stuck between a rock and a hard place here. They don't really have much of a choice because they have to get whatever's on the market and what is on the market are third-party screens made primarily for the Chinese market with fake Apple branding on them. Independent repair shops simply don't buy in sufficient volume to get these parts custom manufactured without such branding at practical costs and it's basically impossible to get the genuine article.
Of course none of this would be a problem if it were feasible to buy genuine OEM replacement parts.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday July 09 2020, @05:32PM
We used to call it a "racket" in my day.