The government wishes to ensure that, the UK's intellectual property framework is designed to promote innovation and growth in the UK economy, enabling new business models appropriate to the digital age. To that effect a review of the current intellectual property system was commissioned which resulted in ten recommendations.

The recommendations varied from the establishment of a cross-sectoral Digital Copyright Exchange to facilitate licensing,  to the introducing of copyright exceptions to permit the digitisation of works for library archiving, format-shifting, parody, and text and data mining; and the creation of a scheme for clearance and use of orphan works. The review also included recommendations regarding an assessment of the relationship between design rights and innovation; introduction of a small-claims track for low-value intellectual property claims; and a reform of the Intellectual Property Office to give it powers to issue formal opinions on the application of copyright law, and to take on a more active role in ensuring fair competition in relation to intellectual property rights.

It is anticipated that, the resulting changes to the UK's intellectual property legal framework will have a considerable impact on the UK's intellectual property landscape, particularly in relation to copyright, thus ensuring that the UK's intellectual property legal framework is fit for the internet age.

Below, I set out the recommendations, in more detail. Further discussion will follow in the next articles. These are:

·        The government should establish a Digital Copyright Exchange (DCE) to allow potential licensees quickly to identify and contact the relevant  intellectual property rights owners, automating the licensing process as much as possible.

·         A licensing system for orphan works should also be established to extend collective licensing for mass licensing of orphan works and a clearance procedure for use of individual works.

·        The government should introduce new copyright exceptions to cover format-shifting, parody, non-commercial research and library archiving.

·         There should be more collaboration and work-sharing between various patent offices to cut backlogs in patent applications. Although it is not recommended that patent protection is extended to sectors where patents are generally unavailable at present, such as non-technical computer programs, it is suggested that this could be possible if there is clear evidence of benefit. The government should also encourage patent owners to assess more carefully the value of maintaining lower-value patents.

·         The IPO should be encouraged to conduct an evidence-based assessment of the relationship between design rights and innovation.

·         A new small-claims track in the Patents County Court should be created for low-value intellectual property claims.

·        The IPO should draw up plans to improve accessibility to intellectual property advice and registration for small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), particularly to cost-efficient providers of integrated legal and commercial advice on intellectual property. Anassutzi & Co has been, in this regard, the pioneer in this area with a variety of services offereed to make expert advice available to small businesses.

·        Regarding intellectual property policy development, the IPO should be given the necessary powers and mandate to ensure that it focuses on its central task of ensuring that the UK's intellectual property system promotes innovation and growth through efficient, contestable markets. It should be empowered to issue statutory opinions where these will help clarify copyright law.