IP minister retains role in new UK government

Baroness Lucy Neville-Rolfe has remained in her role as the UK’s minister for intellectual property in Prime Minister David Cameron’s new cabinet.

Neville-Rolfe, whose full title is parliamentary under-secretary of state for IP, will work in the Department for Business Innovation and Skills.

The Conservative Party won a majority in the UK election held on May 7. The party won 331 of the 650 seats available.

She was first appointed in July 2014, replacing Lord James Younger.

After the switch, Neville-Rolfe became the sixth IP minister in seven years.

Mark Owen, partner at law firm Taylor Wessing, welcomed the decision to keep Neville-Rolfe in the role.

He said: “The post of IP minster has been bedevilled by frequent change; we have had six different ministers since Lord Triesman become the first IP Minister in June 2007 which signalled that it was not a post governments took seriously.

“The rapid turnover has meant that the ministers have been given little chance to master a complex brief, and some have been left more exposed than others.”

He added: “Though we have yet to see that much from her having only been there for a few months before the election campaign got underway, she has in my view shown the most sureness of touch in the role.  Her main achievement has been in steering the endless copyright review to a conclusion.”

Neville-Rolfe  worked previously as a director of corporate affairs at UK supermarket group Tesco and as a non-executive director at television station ITV.

Owen added that Neville-Rolfe would face many unanswered questions in her role, including around the Unified Patent Court and the possibility of the UK leaving the EU.