"I am glad to have the opportunity to address this audience on World IP day. It is an audience with a number of familiar faces. You are a very distinguished group of IP practitioners and commentators"
Science Museum
23 April 2009
CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
But there are people missing from this room. The man in the London street. The farmer in the developing world. IP is still the resort of the professionals. That’s what I want to change. I want people in my local pub to talk about IP as easily as they are able to talk about new mobile phones. And if I’m going to do that, I need your help.
I want to look at IP from various perspectives: the consumer, the needs of businesses. The international stage and IP in a world of innovation.
The consumer
Let’s start with the consumer. For the consumer, an important emphasis is on copyright. Too often we talk about IP in the context of telling someone not to do things they’d like to. IP, so we are told, stops them listening to music, or performing it. It stops them enjoying films, or watching TV shows.
Up to a point, those people are right. If you want to stay within the law, IP can be seen as a means of stopping you doing things. One of the reasons is that the system is seen as complicated and frustrating to use. It’s been in the hands of the professionals, rightly so, for a long time. But the digital world is changing that.
I want to see greater public understanding of the system. I want to show the person in the street that the system actually works in their interests. I want them to see it helps keep them in work. And I want it to offer a better and more prosperous future for us and all our children.
That is why I launched our copyright strategy back in December. I want to have an open and proper debate. We need to do this so we can map out a way forward. A way that commands a general consensus about what we want copyright to do for us. A strategy that works for everyone.
I launched a wide-ranging engagement programme including stakeholder roundtables in London in February and March.
I have been talking to consumers. I have been to talking to creators I have been talking to SMEs.
I am trying to reach the people who are hard to reach. The people who are not in this room, as well as those who are. They have all been telling me about the big issues that need to be tackled. And it has been an interesting journey. The people who are not professionals have important things to say.
I’m gratified by the enthusiasm of people to get involved in this exercise. And to tap into that enthusiasm, next month I am launching a new micro-site. I am also hosting an online forum to focus the next round of discussions.
Last month I helped launch the new “Wallace and Gromit - a world of cracking ideas” exhibition. If you haven’t been, you need to go. It’s a very impressive exhibition. It’s a fun day out. You’ll enjoy it as much as your children do. And you’ll learn a lot about IP, and what it can do for you.
I think this is exactly the right approach. We need a policy based on education. We need a policy based on understanding. We need a policy that is based on incentivising, not a policy based on threats.
Businesses
But let’s step out from that consumer perspective for a moment, and look at the problem from the perspective of business, and particularly the smaller businesses.
Every business, large or small, owns some form of intellectual property – be it an artistic design, shape, technology, process or brand.
I want to help smaller companies really take stock of what they have. I want them to recognise the need to protect it. And I want to ensure that in difficult times like these, firms really do get the best value from their assets.
Many of our most successful small businesses work in highly innovative areas, like new technologies or bioscience. The Intellectual Property Office has have developed an online tool - the IP Healthcheck. Small businesses can use their intellectual property to improve their commercial distinctiveness. They can make their business more marketable. They can make their business more profitable.
Changing business practices
I want to see the global IP system adapt to take account of changes in the way businesses around the world operate.
It needs to cope with what some people call “open innovation” – businesses doing less research and development in-house and bringing in more ideas from external sources.
This model demands a flexible IP framework. One that is able to capture the value of innovations even if they are not used immediately in an end product.
I think we are faced with a challenge:
We need to set conditions for IP rights to be protected at the cutting edge.
But we need to ensure we do not stifle innovation itself.
A poor global IP system is only slightly less damaging than no IP system at all.
The importance of this is no more apparent when considering the biggest issue of our generation and of the next – climate change.
What does this mean in practice and what’s the relevance to IP?
I want to see the development of green technologies.
Environmental and low-carbon industries will increase substantially in the coming years.
I want to see us create the right conditions for them to grow here in the UK they will offer many “jobs for the future”.
To help build on this, we will be launching an accelerated process for patenting green technologies which could mean that patents aimed at combating climate change are granted in as little as 9 months.
I know global challenges such as climate change need global solutions. As well as growing and supporting ‘green’ industries in the UK, tackling climate change will require the widespread diffusion and use of low carbon technologies.
Put simply, I want to see developing countries get access to both knowledge and low carbon technologies.
Global outreach
If our businesses are to thrive and prosper, we need an IP system that works across national borders.
The global framework for intellectual property was designed for another era.
It’s served us well. And it’s served us for a very long time. However, it can’t stand still. It needs to evolve in order to cope with rapidly-changing digital technology. So how are we taking forward this challenge?
We must recognise we are players in a bigger environment. We are part of the EU. And through the EU, we are part of a global framework which operates across all the IP rights, both registered and unregistered.
I want the UK to take a strong lead in shaping the debate at a European and international level, across the whole field of IP. I want to do that in copyright, but I also want to do it the patent area.
When I talk to people outside the IP world, and tell them about the worldwide backlog of several million patent applications waiting to be processed, they are horrified. They can’t conceive of waiting 10 years for their television licence or social security number.
Is it any surprise that companies are losing confidence in the system?
Technology is changing fast. Inventors are forced to wait for years to get protection. Only to find that their product has become obsolete or been overtaken.
I don’t think can afford to wait for this issue to resolve itself. I want to see speedier decisions on patent applications.
That’s why I have pushed for national patent offices to recognise each others’ work.
So where do we start? I want to make it easier for British companies to protect their ideas in China. I want to help encourage further Chinese investment in the UK.
That is why we signed an agreement with China in February that will
reduce duplication and delays between our two patent offices.
Developing countries
It sometimes seems that the IP framework exists only to benefit the developed countries.
I want to change that perception. IP is equally relevant for developing countries. We need a system that supports economic development in both developed and developing countries. How are we going to realise that challenge? How can we all work together to deliver that goal?
Let me tell you about some of the steps we can take to do that.
One example is the work that we’ve been funding to support Ethiopian farmers develop and market their coffee. Among other things, it has helped the farmers to see the opportunities and possibilities which IP can bring.
But we need to do more work generally to build the capacity of developing countries. And that goes beyond helping individuals or groups of individuals. We need to provide support at Government level through advice and technical assistance on establishing fair and workable IP systems. And getting those systems will help the
least developed countries to lift themselves out of poverty
Summary
All of the areas I’ve spoken about offer examples of how our IP policies and practices must change in line with real-world needs.
Just as we are asking colleges and universities to listen and respond to business, so we must ask the same of our global IP system.
If we succeed, we’ll be well on the way towards achieving the aim I mentioned at the beginning. I want to show the public that an intellectual property system has not been invented to create another set of complex rules.
I want to see a system that brings real benefits in terms of employment and economic growth.
But if we’re to get there, I need those most involved, the people in this room, to recognise the challenge and work to ensure we can confront it. That is why I value the contribution you have made, and why I am looking forward to it continuing.
I hope you enjoy the rest of our world IP day celebrations and may I now invite you to take a look around the exhibition.
Thank you.
