As we mentioned in our previous articles, the government has been considering the results and recommendations of the intellectual property review. and the actions for intellectual property that it needs to take. In this context, the government has looked at the required reform for copyright, considered the future of intellectual property in Europe and identified the most pressing intellectual property issues that businesses face every day. Such issues are: 

·         Enforcement, regulatory and market access issues, including counterfeiting, piracy and knowledge leakage.

·         The legal framework and judicial procedures in specific countries, especially concerning lack of clarity in or conflicting approaches to the legal framework governing copyright content; intellectual property registration; contracting or technology commercialisation; diffusion; and judicial procedures.

·         Delays in intellectual property registration, especially patent backlogs, which cause business uncertainty.

·         Unequal information about intellectual property value, markets, legal framework differences or ways of transferring technology which increase perceptions of risk and hinder deal-making between foreign and UK firms, increasing costs and stifling innovation.

Although the UK has a very close relationship with the US Patent and Trademark Office and is working closely with it on tackling global backlogs and works well with Japan, Australia and Canada it is expected that, the UK will make improving its intellectual property relationships with China, India and Brazil (because of their size, rapid growth and influence) and developing an intellectual property relationship with Korea and Vietnam a priority.

The governement purposes to achieved the above by establishing a network of intellectual property attachés to promote UK business interests, policy interests and by providing a focal point for supporting UK businesses with intellectual property-related issues; and by working with UK Trade & Investment and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, to provide practical support to help UK businesses develop and exploit their intellectual property in key overseas markets. This will include:

o    targeted support to SME intellectual property users.

o    development of specific packages for key markets, including China.

o    raising the intellectual property concerns of UK business with third-country governments.

o    identification of the most effective means to provide support, such as helpdesks and enforcement guides.

Regarding emerging economies, the government will provide practical support to UK businesses operating or desiring to operate overseas in the priority emerging economies through:

·         Developing country-specific plans for China, India and Brazil.

·         Strengthening relations between intellectual property authorities and offices to build confidence and tackle common problems such as backlogs, and cross-border collaborative research and development.

·         Promoting the value and role of intellectual property for innovation, technology diffusion and economic growth as part of the wider cross-government political and economic dialogue.

·         Working with EU partners to push for more effective and consistent intellectual property enforcement, where not detrimental to societal needs such as public health.

Providing targeted technical assistance in support of these priorities and where it does not duplicate existing programmes.

In doing all the above, the UK must also consider that, for low-income countries with a weak scientific and technological infrastructure, stronger intellectual property protection appears to have no effect on growth and may hinder it. In fact, low-income and least developed countries tend to have limited intellectual property assets to protect, and the enforcement of intellectual property rights may divert resources away from more pressing needs. Intellectual property is particularly relevant to development in a number of specific policy areas including climate change and access to medicines.

Therefore, the government should try to achieve an international intellectual property framework that strikes the right balance between industrial and development priorities to help stimulate economic growth and tackles critical global challenges. This can be done by:

·         Advocating that, intellectual property policies and their implementation should be tailored to the level of economic development of individual countries with stronger enforcement in emerging economies, especially China, India and Brazil.

·         Considering calling for an extension to the transition period by when all least development countries should have made their national intellectual property laws TRIPS compliant, currently 2013.

·         Identifying how the international intellectual property framework can be harnessed to address development concerns, particularly public health in developing countries.

·         Supporting a robust and appropriate international intellectual property framework which balances individual, company and societal benefits, encouraging other offices, including the EPO, to adopt fast-track patenting for green technologies.

Provide technical assistance where appropriate and within available resources, prioritising support to those countries which will benefit from improved intellectual property laws or on how to make the best of their and others' intellectual property.

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