Draft Designs (International Registration of Industrial Designs) Order 2017
(6 years, 11 months ago)
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The Minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innovation (Joseph Johnson)
I beg to move,
That the Committee has considered the draft Designs (International Registration of Industrial Designs) Order 2017.
The order modifies the Registered Designs Act 1949 and the Registered Designs Rules 2006, and is an essential step in the UK’s ratification of the Geneva Act of the Hague agreement for registration of industrial designs. The Hague system for international registration of industrial designs provides a means of obtaining protection for designs in multiple countries, or with intergovernmental organisations, through a single application filed at the World Intellectual Property Organisation. Membership of the treaty is becoming more popular, and recent signatories include Japan, Russia, the US and South Korea. There are currently 67 members, including the European Union and 18 EU member states.
The Government want the UK to be the best place in the world to do business. The promotion of strong and effective international IP regimes can reduce the risks of trading internationally for UK businesses and create further export opportunities. UK designers and design-led businesses are part of a global industry and, as such, it is essential that they have the option to protect their IP cost-effectively when trading abroad. By joining the Hague system, UK businesses, and especially small and medium-sized enterprises, that wish to have designs registered across multiple countries, will have a simpler, more cost-effective method for obtaining and managing their rights. Businesses will be able to save money on design registrations and protect their IP with greater administrative ease.
The order will come into force when UK ratification of the Hague agreement with the World Intellectual Property Organisation is complete. The order is essential to make the required modifications to the Registered Designs Act 1949 and the Registered Designs Rules 2006 to give effect to the Hague agreement in UK law.
Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)
Is my hon. Friend aware that the Design Council very much supports this legislation? The United Kingdom is probably the major generator in the world of international design, from Issigonis’s Mini car to the present day, and protection for British design is imperative to ensure that continues in the future.
Joseph Johnson
My hon. Friend is entirely right. I know from speaking to designers the importance of design to the UK economy. He mentioned the Design Council, which has produced a study that found that the design economy generated no less than £72 billion in gross value added to the UK economy. Its importance should certainly not be underestimated.
Ratification of the Hague agreement forms part of a broader designs modernisation portfolio intended to refine and streamline the designs legal framework, so that the UK can provide a first-class, fit-for-purpose system for our design-led companies.
Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Sharma. I have a six-page version of my speech, for the benefit of the hon. Member for Lichfield, but I shall leave it on my desk.
The Minister has set out the importance to businesses of protecting our designs internationally. The intervention from the hon. Member for Lichfield was extremely helpful in reminding us how important design is in this country. We are world leaders and should do everything we can to protect intellectual property rights. The impact assessment and the explanatory notes set out well how the order will make matters better for smaller businesses in particular, by simplifying and reducing costs. It is right that we do so.
I cannot help but notice, in the way we are able to take this step now, the contrast with a previous statutory instrument that the Minister introduced. I asked him a written question about the challenges of securing our membership of the Unified Patent Court, which is another important matter. We do not know with any certainty whether we will be able to take the same approach to joining that court as to ratifying the Geneva Act of the Hague agreement.
The draft order has the support of the majority of business, and it is right and proper that we support it. The Opposition are keen to stand up for businesses in this country, especially smaller businesses. I wish all hon. Members a merry Christmas.
Joseph Johnson
I thank the hon. Gentleman for his words of support and for his brevity, because everyone has Christmas shopping to be getting on with. I thank hon. Members for attending the debate. Design is a fundamental part of the economy—I echo my hon. Friend the Member for Lichfield—and the draft order will make it easier for businesses to get the protections they need for their designs.
We are committed to implementing an ever more competitive IP framework in this country, and the draft order is an important part of that framework. It will take us a step closer to the UK ratification of the Geneva Act of the Hague agreement, making it easier and more cost-effective for UK designers and design-led businesses to register international designs. I commend it to the Committee.
Question put and agreed to.