Image credit – iFixit
When it comes to repairing your electronics, most manufacturers would prefer if you sent your products to their shop or official repair centers to get it done. There are plenty of reasons for this, one of which is being contested in a “right to repair” legislation in which it would give third-party repair shops access to official components and tools to fix devices.
Unsurprisingly some companies are against this and over in Norway, Apple tried to sue a third-party repair shop for something similar, except that in this case the shop prevailed. In 2017, Apple sent Henrik Huseby, the owner of a small electronics repair shop in Norway, a letter demanding that he stop using aftermarket iPhone screens in his repair shop. They also demanded that he pay Apple a settlement of 27,700 Norwegian Krone ($3,566) and destroy all the screens he had if he wanted to avoid going to trial.
However it seems that Huseby was not planning on taking this lying down and decided to fight back where the courts sided with him. This is because the court based their ruling on Norwegian law where they found that it “does not prohibit a Norwegian mobile repair person from importing mobile screens from Asian manufacturers that are 100 percent compatible and completely identical to Apple’s own iPhone screens, so long as Apple’s trademark is not applied to the product.”
Apple is expected to appeal, but Huseby’s lawyer does not believe that their appeal will be successful. According to Huseby, “I will continue to repair iPhone like I did before, no change. I’m glad I now don’t have to be afraid of importing compatible spare parts for iPhone again.”