UK Parliament Group Conducts Post-Hargreaves Inquiry Into IP Policy

The All-Party Parliamentary Intellectual Property Group in the United Kingdom is undertaking an inquiry into the government’s role in intellectual property (IP) promotion and protection, less than a year after the publication of an independent and comprehensive review on the UK’s IP system.

In a press release, the group said a review on the topic is important and pressing as government departments and agencies play a huge role in developing and enforcing IP policy. The group’s website is here.

“There have been numerous reviews of IP policy in the last ten years but little examination has taken place of how government itself promotes and develops the protection of intellectual property rights,” the group chair John Whittingdale said.

Particularly, the group wants to understand how IP policy in the UK is developed and coordinated.

“This is not intended to be a long and drawn out examination. We hope to reach conclusions by May so we can feed into developing Government thinking in this area, particularly following its copyright consultation,” he said.

For this review, the group is asking organisations to send written submissions on five questions by 30 March, followed by a series of public question and answer sessions. The five questions are included in the release [pdf], and cover objectives of the IP policy, coordination in government, past efforts to update the IP system, performance of the UK IP Office, and coordination with international efforts.

The All-Party Intellectual Property Group is made up of members of Parliament and positions itself as a resource for UK parliamentarians on IP issues.

Some observers question whether the new initiative is an attempt to counter the results of last year’s landmark report by Ian Hargreaves, the chair of Digital Economy at the Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies and Cardiff Business School. Hargreaves published the independent review [pdf] on UK’s IP system in May 2011. The review was commissioned by the UK Prime Minister in November 2010.

The 10 recommendations from the Hargreaves review are ensuring that the development of an IP system is driven by objective evidence; for UK to pursue international interests in IP particularly with India and China; making reforms in copyright licensing; enabling licensing of orphan works; resisting over-regulation in the area of copyright; setting up measures to address patent thickets or the overlap of IP rights; increased support for the design industry; pursuing an integrated approach in enforcing IP rights; making the IP system accessible to smaller companies; and more powers and mandate for the UK IP Office.