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17 December 2012Copyright

Vince Cable announces IP protection plans

Business Secretary Vince Cable has proposed new measures to protect intellectual property in a speech given at The Big Innovation Centre in London on Monday.

The plans are designed to help small businesses and bolster innovation in the UK.

Among a range of proposals, Cable announced a “superfast” service to be introduced by the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), which will see UK patent applications processed in 90 days, and trademark examinations that will deliver reports in five days, down from 10.

Meanwhile, the IPO will work closely with the City of London Police in an effort to crack down on counterfeiting and piracy.

The new GrowthAccelerator programme will help small to medium enterprises (SMEs) manage their IP. Cable said: "The development of new, bespoke services available within the GrowthAccelerator programme and through the Technology Strategy Board [will] ensure that those SMEs with high growth potential born of their intellectual property get the holistic support they need to succeed.”

He also proposed strengthening the IPO’s IP attaché network, which will expand to Singapore.

Geoff Taylor, chief executive of the British Phonographic Industry, praised the Business Secretary’s plans to encourage the consumer to respect IP and educate young people about how copyright infringement harms the IP owners, as online piracy continues to threaten the music industry. He said:

“BPI has argued for some time that the IPO should take on a more active role in educating young people about how IP affects them in the digital world.  We are very pleased to hear Government’s announcement today of a new campaign. We hope that it will be supported by significant funding, so that it can make a real difference in boosting the use of legal music services online.”

Vicki Salmon, chair of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys’ Litigation Committee, said that while the accelerated patent grant service will benefit a small number of businesses, the majority do not need their patents granted quickly.

She added that the delays in filing patents with the European Patent Office are a more “substantial” problem: “The inability to deal with the existing delays at the European Patent Office is much more damaging to innovation in the UK.”

Keith Hodkinson, chairman of Marks & Clerk International, said overseas companies and smaller enterprises may see the biggest benefits: “The rapid grant of a patent in the UK could make the system very attractive to some larger overseas applicants frustrated by the slow progress of European Patents who might file in parallel to the UK, later abandoning the UK patent when the corresponding European Patent (UK) or Unitary Patent is granted.”

The proposed measures will come into effect next year.

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28 June 2013   The UK government has said a new police unit for tackling IP crimes will be ready by September this year.