Intellectual Property Bill [HL]

Perhaps I may pursue this a little further. At Second Reading, I raised the point that in terms of intellectual property the grant of copyright or the grant of registered or unregistered design can result in a big improvement in competition. It encourages creativeness and innovation and it encourages the emergence of new competition. On the other hand, competition generally—meaning competition of new and old, old and new—surely means, to re-emphasise the point made by my noble friend Lord Howarth, that if because of the 15 years or any other substantial period general competition is confined and there is no competition for a particular design or copyright area, then the period is too long. In all the studies that have been made, including Hargreaves and so on, I wonder whether the rather vital matter of whether it should be 15 or 10 years or whether it should be so many months has been considered and reconsidered afresh in order to see how applicable these periods of time are for the future.