Written Statement
Intellectual Property Office (Innovation and Growth)
The Minister for Culture and the Digital Economy (Mr Edward Vaizey)
My noble Friend the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills and Minister for Intellectual Property (Baroness Neville-Rolfe) has made the following statement.
I am laying before both Houses of Parliament copies of the first annual report on the impact of the Intellectual Property Office’s activities on innovation and growth. Such a report will be required from next year by section 21 of the Intellectual Property Act 2014, which came into force on 1 October 2014.
The Intellectual Property Office’s role is to encourage continued investment in innovation and creativity, through an IP system that supports growth.
The report covers the 2013-14 financial year and sets out what the Intellectual Property Office has done to develop the policy framework better to reflect digital technologies; to improve the efficiency of rights granting; to raise awareness of intellectual property among businesses and consumers; and to tackle IP crime on and offline.
The year has seen changes to the copyright framework. These give third parties increased freedom to use copyright works for a variety of economically and socially valuable purposes, while maintaining safeguards to protect the rights of creators to benefit appropriately from their work. The Intellectual Property Act 2014 made a number of changes to design and patent law which will help small businesses. The IPO has increased its focus on educating businesses and consumers on the value of intellectual property. And we have improved enforcement, for example by funding the police intellectual property crime unit.
These are just a few of the highlights and I am delighted to have the opportunity to present this report to Parliament.