ACID CEO Dids Macdonald OBE has written to the Prime Minister to share our concerns that a dedicated IP Minister has not been appointed since the Cabinet reshuffle.

Our recent article by Nick Kounoupias outlines why we feel this is a necessity and can be viewed here

Rt. Hon. Boris Johnson, MP
Prime Minister
10 Downing Street
London SW1A 2AA

14 August 2019 

Dear Prime Minister

WHY HASN’T AN IP MINISTER BEEN APPOINTED?

Firstly, congratulations on your appointment as our Prime Minister and I wish you every success in galvanising our amazing country into the next phase – deal or no deal. Although I voted to remain, the UK has experienced emotional, commercial and political exhaustion and it’s time to move on to discover new and exciting opportunities.

Intellectual property contributes around £135 billion in knowledge assets which will be critical to the post Brexit stage of the UK’s economy to achieve growth. Staggeringly, however, you seem to have omitted to appoint a Minister of Intellectual Property to sit at the Cabinet Table which I and others find remarkable.

Exploring new markets and opportunities will mean new territories and it is even more important that one of our strongest assets is fully protected within an IP enforcement framework that works. I believe that this can only be spearheaded by a dedicated IP Minister at the helm and not one with a shared portfolio.

Take design, post-Brexit, the majority of the UK’s designers (1.5m employed in design and design skills) still rely on unregistered UK and EU design rights. What will be calamitous, deal or no deal, is they will lose essential IP protection in EU27. This will leave them vulnerable to EU copyists. Counterfeit, pirated and copied goods are estimated to cause around £9 billion in lost sales. To date, despite three years of intense campaigning, protection in EU27 is still not  on radar to receive clarity and support or engagement in reciprocal agreements.

I attach a recently published article by Nick Kounoupias, ACID’s Chief Counsel, giving compelling reasons why we should have a dedicated IP Minister sitting around your cabinet table.

I hope you agree?

Yours sincerely

Dids Macdonald, OBE
CEO of Anti Copying in Design (ACID)
Vice Chair of the Alliance for Intellectual Property