Nick Kounoupias of Kounoupias IP and ACID’s Chief Counsel puts forward the case for the appointment of a dedicated Minister for Intellectual Property.

Intellectual Property is the DNA running through every creative and innovative business.  In a post Brexit UK our country’s future prosperity will depend on the imagination of designers, the ingenuity of inventors, the hustle of entrepreneurs, the skills of the workforce, and the talent of composers, lyricists and authors.

But this future prosperity is imperilled if there is a weak IP regime or one where it is difficult and expensive for a rights owner to enforce their rights. Compared to some of those countries that we will be competing with in the future or hoping to secure trade deals with post Brexit, the state of the IP nation is not as rosy as it might appear.

Intellectual Property is a business issue not a legal issue but the currency of innovation in design, and the success or failure of its businesses, is measured through Intellectual Property rights and in particular registered and unregistered UK and Community Design Rights and also copyright.

ACID over the years has consistently expressed its concern at the parlous state of design laws, whether this be the failure to apply criminal sanctions to the deliberate infringement of an unregistered design (whereas they do apply for deliberate infringement of copyright, trade-marks or registered designs), the likely loss of EU unregistered design protection in the remaining 27 EU member states post Brexit or the scandalous misrepresentation concerning the scope of protection of iconic designs, allegedly brought back into copyright and protected for life plus 70 years. Added to this is the continuing uncertainty regarding what is and isn’t protected as a work of artistic craftsmanship.

And then there are the enforcement issues. Litigation in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court and the High Court remains expensive and a deterrent to small and medium sized rights owner’s businesses irrespective of the sector or intellectual property rights in question.

So why, given the obvious need for stronger IP protection and enforcement to secure the UK’s commercial future, does intellectual property face these challenges? We believe it’s simply down to the low priority accorded to it by successive governments. Whereas other departments have their own dedicated minister sitting round the Cabinet table and able to fight their corner, IP has had to cope with a junior minister at the Department of Business Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) without a dedicated intellectual property portfolio but shared with a demanding portfolio such as Education.  As a result the Minister, whomever is chosen, will have little time for IP.

If the UK’s future prosperity is to be secured post Brexit, IP rights have to be treated more seriously. What better way than to appoint a Minister for IP to bring together and co-ordinate IP across a number of government departments. It would surely send the signal that the UK is standing behind its promises to support innovation and creativity.