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From the Newsdesk

Online Harms White Paper

Following the recent publication by the UK Government of Online Harms White Paper the Alliance for Intellectual Property comments:

“Alliance members represent diverse business sectors which create, develop, distribute and sell innovative and exciting goods, services and content to consumers in the UK and worldwide through myriad channels and outlets.

We welcome the Government’s proposals to protect UK citizens from harmful activity online. However, the paper fails to address the harmful activity that affects businesses, in terms of revenue generation, investment and creative innovation, which has a downstream impact on employees and wider society. Any activity which ignores or abuses the terms on which services are enabled through online access has a lasting and detrimental effect on individuals. This includes online fraud, scams, malware, phishing and the sale of poor quality and deficient goods featuring alongside sophisticated international organised crime networks involved in counterfeiting and piracy.

Intellectual Property is the lifeblood of the UK economy, fostering innovation, economic growth and jobs which benefit communities and society at large. We are keen to work with Government to develop further proposals to protect creators, consumers and businesses to enable even greater growth in the next decade.”

The following harms will be excluded from scope: All harms to organisations, such as companies, as opposed to harms suffered by individuals. This excludes harms relating to most aspects of competition law, most cases of intellectual property violation, and the organisational response to many cases of fraudulent activity. The government is leading separate initiatives to tackle these issues.

ACID CEO and Vice Chair of the Alliance for Intellectual Property Dids Macdonald, OBE., commenting on the publication said, “It is clear, with Australia also taking a firm stance on protection of citizens from harmful activity, that this is a global concern. It is timely that online platforms are held to account. ACID, too, looks forward to positive talks with Government to raise awareness about the increase in online infringement of designs. This mainly affects micro and SME innovators who find it increasingly cost and time prohibitive to implement take down and track down.”

By working with Government and online platforms positively, we believe a workable solution can be created to address harmful activity that affects small businesses. Whilst we are disappointed that the White Paper does not address business and commercial issues, we are assured that the government is leading separate initiatives to tackle these issues and would urge that these are given urgent attention.”

 

 

 

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