Under pressure to remove obstructions to innovation and growth the Government commissioned Professor Ian Hargreaves in November 2010 to review the current intellectual property framework to determine whether it was fit for purpose. Peter Rawlinson, Partner and head of Wake Smith's IP/IT team agrees that the recommended overhaul of the IP framework must become a priority to aid economic growth in the region. Ahead of the Government's response to the Hargreaves Report, Peter reviews the core recommendations and their implications for the region. Hargreaves found that the UK's IP framework½"especially with regard to copyright, is falling behind what is needed½and the UK cannot afford to let a legal framework designed around artists impede vigorous participation in emerging business sectors." A diverse range of some 300 organisations representing consumers, content and technology providers, education and professional experts were consulted over a 5 month period. The Hargreaves Report made 10 recommendations:
- Evidence - the UK IP system should be driven as far as possible by objective empirical evidence diluting the effect of powerful lobbying groups as we saw with the Digital Economy Act.
- International Priorities - the UK should pursue its interest in IP in emerging economies and a unified EU patent court and EU patent system. The UK should work to make the Patent Cooperation Treaty a more effective vehicle for international processing of patent applications.
- Copyright licensing - establish a cross sectoral Digital Copyright Exchange by the end of 2012. The UK should support moves by the EC to establish a framework for cross border copyright licensing, with clear benefits to the UK as a major exporter of copyright works.
- Orphan Works - the Government should legislate to enable licensing of orphan works. A work should only be treated as an orphan if it cannot be found by searching the DCE database.
- Limits to Copyright - resist over regulation of activities which do not prejudice the central objective of copyright, namely the provision of incentives to creators. Government should deliver copyright exceptions to realise all the opportunities within the EU framework.
- Patent Thickets and Other Obstruction to Innovation - the Government should; take a leading role in promoting international efforts to cut backlogs and manage the boom in patent applications by further extending "work sharing" with patent offices in other countries.
- The Design Industry - this whole branch of the creative economy needs assessment with a view to establishing a firmer basis for evaluating policy at UK and European level.
- Enforcement of IP Rights - The Government should pursue an integrated approach to strengthen and grow legitimate markets in copyright and other IP protected fields.
- Small Firm Access to IP Advice - The IPO should draw up plans to improve accessibility by smaller companies of the IP system
- An IP System Responsive to Change - The IPO should be empowered to ensure the UK's IP system promotes innovation and growth through efficient, contestable markets.
Clients in this region working in the digital sector have responded positively to the concept of a Digital Copyright Exchange as it would potentially expedite the clearing rights process for content and safeguard against alleged breach of copyright. Hargreaves reports that SMEs "had most to gain from more accessible, transparent markets for rights½[as they are]..least equipped to cope with transaction costs and complexities". We've seen this on an increasing scale as securing the use of tracks or images for applications developed by clients can be time consuming and expensive. Equally, content providers from film, arts and the music sector are hostile to some of the recommendations in particular the concept that orphan works should be freely available if not registered on the DCE. Some clients are concerned this creates a burden of having to register all works (such as unused files of music, film and images) to avoid such being deemed orphan works. If such images are not registered on the DCE it could mean third parties who then claim to be unaware of the rights owner would be entitled to use such works without sanction. Contact Wake Smith for more information 0114 266 66660.
