My Lords, this proposed new clause calls for a new appointment of a director-general of intellectual property rights.
More than a year ago I started to be approached by a number of bodies, individuals and organisations who voiced their fears about threats to their rights as owners of intellectual property. I held discussions with representatives of publishers from the music industry, the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society and a number of others, including those representing designers. I attended a number of meetings where these fears were voiced with increasing intensity and became convinced of the need to ensure that the then projected legislation really did protect the owners of all kinds of IP.
I was interested to read a biography of my great-grandfather recently, who was a distinguished 19th century engineer—the first professor of engineering at Edinburgh University. He and Sir William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, had considerable battles with financiers and others to ensure that they enjoyed the fruits of their inventions by means of patents, which are simply another form of intellectual property. Therefore, my interest in these matters may be to do with my genes.
I have also listened to the strong case for what is called open access: that is, the policy of enabling free access to the results of publicly funded research and other similar sources. This is strongly supported by my right honourable friend the Minister for Science, David Willetts. I remind noble Lords what he wrote in his article in the Guardian last year. The article stated that,
“we will make publicly funded research accessible free of charge to readers. Giving the people the right to roam freely over publicly funded research will usher in a new era of academic discovery and collaboration, and will put the UK at the forefront of open research”.
He added:
“The challenge is how we get there without ruining the value added by academic publishers”,
and, of course, many others. We know that in the other place an amendment was made to the Bill which protects those who publish the results of such research. However, my right honourable friend described this change in open access as a “seismic shift”. The policy covers research councils, universities, libraries, archives and museums. It also covers electronic publications from these sources.
I must make it clear that I warmly welcome this open access policy which seems to me to have a great deal of merit. However, I must, of course, mention the challenges to which my right honourable friend referred. I have been made aware that major commercial interests, many of them in the electronics industry, especially the interactive sources, find the obligations to respect copyright a tiresome and expensive barrier to their business. They appear to claim that they, too, create public benefit and that the privileges of open access should be extended to them as well. Their solution has been to argue strenuously for relaxation of the terms and application of copyright, and some of those arguments are reflected in the Bill. We are faced with the need to reconcile legitimate open access with the essential protection of the rights of the creators of intellectual property. That may be something of a simplification, but we will have ample opportunity to explore that as we go through the rest of the Bill. I must make it clear that I do not wish to trespass upon the debate we shall have on the many particular policy issues dealing with exceptions and orphan works, collective licensing, codes of conduct and the ombudsman, which are all subject to later amendments that deserve very thorough scrutiny.
It is where other interests see this as a route to circumvent the constraints of copyright and other legal protections for property rights—and I assert very firmly that they are property rights and have been seen as such by the courts for very many years—that the conflicts lie. I start by quoting and endorsing the
statement by the Alliance for Intellectual Property. It is a long statement, but I will quote only the essential paragraph:
“IP lies at the heart of every British success story. It is essential to the creative industries which support around 1.5 m jobs, contribute over £36 billion to UK GVA (DCMS Creative Industries Economic Estimates). IP is also the basis for the £16 billion which companies invest annually in the UK economy by building brands, and allows the UK’s brand-building industries (including advertising, marketing and design agencies) to generate around £1 billion in Gross Value Added through exports alone. In addition, the design industry employs up to 350,000 people and UK businesses spend around £35 billion on design each year”.
We are not talking about fringe businesses. This lies right at the heart of a great deal of British industry. It is a powerful case, and I have to say to the Minister that I am not wholly satisfied that the Government recognise the strength of that case.
An example of the very real concern that the threat to copyright, including design, patents et cetera, has engendered, was a letter sent to the Times last March signed by members of the Creative Coalition Campaign.
“Copyright is the central intellectual property right that underpins the creative and knowledge economy. Films, music, games, books, could not get made in their present quantity and quality without a robust system of copyright. It provides the legal foundation for the ability of companies to license or sell works, and to invest and innovate”.
There have been other statements as well.
I am sure that noble Lords are aware that on 29 October last, the All-Party Parliament IP group produced a report, The Role of Government in Promoting and Protecting Intellectual Property, which urged the Government to get a grip on how IP policy is made. My honourable friend John Whittingdale, the chairman of the committee, said in a press release:
“The current system of creating intellectual property policy just isn’t working. IP needs a champion within Government, who will recognise its significance and who will have the influence to co-ordinate policy across different departments. From trademarks to patents, design rights and copyright, UK companies depend on their IP rights to succeed and thrive. In this difficult economic climate it’s especially important that Government backs British businesses on IP. We hope that Government will take note of our proposals”.
It was a fairly hard-hitting report, which made the point that the Intellectual Property Office had lost,
“the confidence of a broad swathe of its stakeholders”.
I come to Amendment 28C, which picks up on the group’s call for a champion of IP, calling for the creation of a new post, the director-general of intellectual property rights, a duty to promote the creation of IP and to protect it where it exists. I know that noble Lords will already have studied the amendment, which says in proposed new subsection (2):
“The Director General has a duty to … promote the creation of new intellectual property … protect and promote the interests of UK intellectual property rights holders … co-ordinate effective enforcement of UK intellectual property rights, and”—
this is a very important one—
“educate consumers on the nature and value of intellectual property”.
I add that as an important one, because it is clear that quite a lot of the public think that it is perfectly all right to download all sorts of things on to their computers and telephones without paying for it—because
there it is, after all, and they will not be found out. That is the essential of what the amendment points out.
The committee referred to the IPO as having lost the confidence of its stakeholders, but the IPO has an entirely different function, as was made clear by the evidence that it gave to the all-party group. Some of us have had the privilege of listening to people from the IPO in the meetings that we have had. The plain fact is that the IPO may be an efficient registration body for the registration of IP rights, but it is not and never has purported to be a champion of IP. On the contrary, it sees its role as holding the balance between creators and users. This view is reinforced by the general terms of the report, Modernising Copyright, published on 20 December last year and announced by the right honourable Vince Cable when he launched the report. It declares its intention to safeguard the rights of IP creators, but almost every single one of the changes recommended points in the opposite direction. For instance, there should be more exceptions to copyright allowing access without paying. There are many other examples, which we shall no doubt deal with in the respective amendments. Much of the rest are simplifying where practice and confusion have reigned and uncertainty has become rife.
The creators and owners of IP must have someone in government to speak up for them, and that is what the amendment is intended to establish. Since I tabled it, two or three weeks ago, I have been astonished by the wide support that it has attracted. It is seen by a great many of the bodies that represent the creative industries as something that really makes sense.
I referred earlier to the Alliance for Intellectual Property and I also cite the BPI, which represents the British recorded music industry. They ask noble Lords to support the amendment arguing that the director-general should be accountable for ensuring a framework for IP that promotes investment in new content, protects the investment from theft and counterfeit and educates consumers on the importance of UK intellectual property to jobs, growth and export strength to the United Kingdom. There is also the Creators’ Rights Alliance, which speaks for some 14 bodies, including writers, illustrators, picture libraries, composers, journalists, musicians and many others.
Whatever the IPO and my noble friend’s department may say, this widespread demand for a champion for IP seems to have gained a great deal of support. It must not be swept aside. Of course, we will not be voting today because one does not vote in Grand Committee, but this is one of the most important amendments before the Committee. I beg to move.
3.45 pm