Intellectual Property Bill [Lords]

Debate between Lord Willetts and Richard Fuller

Monday 20th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Willetts]

I will, of course, consider all these issues as the Bill is debated in Committee. I think we have got the balance broadly correct on that issue, but I am happy to consider it further in Committee.

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

I draw the House’s attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. As many IP infringements occur in goods manufactured outside the United Kingdom, how will criminal prosecutions take place within the United Kingdom to protect rights?

[Mr Willetts]

We will be able to apply the provision to any companies active within the UK. If the goods are manufactured abroad, there will nevertheless be some distribution or other entity within the UK.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Willetts]

My hon. Friend has made that point to me and I have considered it. He is right that the Wellcome Trust has also raised it. Our view at the moment is that we should stick with the proposals in the Bill, because they have the merit of copying exactly what is already done in Scotland. Of course—I am looking across the House at representatives from Scotland—we are always keen to learn from Scottish examples. Indeed, it is known in the trade as the Scottish exemption. We think that having two rather different provisions for research across the UK might be unhelpful, and that the extra words might cast doubt on the effectiveness of the Scottish provision. We have no reason to doubt the Scottish provision, which currently gets the balance right and ensures protection. I am happy to debate the point further in Committee, but I must tell my hon. Friend that we are not at the moment inclined to go as far as the Wellcome Trust has asked.

Let me give another example, which comes from Universities UK, of the problems that the provisions will undoubtedly tackle. A professor turned down an appointment to the European Research Council as an expert referee because the contract could be read to mean that any material had to be subject to absolute confidentiality. His commitment to that was perceived to be difficult due to existing provisions in the Freedom of Information Act, and ultimately the contract was not signed. As a result, the professor did not take up the work, and the European Research Council lost valuable expertise.

The introduction of a specific exemption for research will therefore provide clarity both to higher education institutions and non-public sector research partners—our excellent research community—and enhance the UK’s leading position in international research.

[Richard Fuller]

Before the Minister concludes, will he apprise the House of the changes that he said will help to boost small and medium-sized enterprises to grow? When he comes to the Dispatch Box to report on the success of the measures in five years’ time, what metrics will he use to help us to evaluate whether the changes proposed in the Bill have succeeded?

[Mr Willetts]

That is a very good question. Above all, we will look to the further growth of innovative SMEs in our design sector. We have a fantastic network of designers, especially in small businesses, but many of their innovations are currently taken all too easily, sometimes by bigger companies that have almost a corporate strategy of copying and lifting what our smartest entrepreneurs and designers are doing. I want our design sector and especially such SMEs to thrive, and I hope that the sector will grow strongly over the years. That will be a very good test of the central provision in the Bill, which is to extend more protection to our world-class design community.

The changes that are introduced by the Bill will mean that UK businesses that want to protect their products and technologies through patents and design rights will be better off. The Bill will support our hugely successful design sector and make the law clearer and easier to navigate for innovative small businesses. I trust, therefore, that the House will be content to give the Bill a Second Reading. I commend it to the House.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Willetts and Richard Fuller

Thursday 21st March 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Universities and Science (Mr David Willetts)]

International students provide enormous economic and cultural benefits to the UK. Education exports from further and higher education contribute some £9 billion to the economy. We therefore stated in January that we will place no cap on the number of genuine students coming from across the world to study in this country.

[Richard Fuller]

I thank the Minister for that answer. We all understand the importance of clearing up the chaotic mess of immigration left by the last Government and the attention that the public pay to reducing the total numbers, but many of us would like to see student numbers excluded from our migration statistics. The economic case has been made by Universities UK and the 1994 Group. Will the Minister reassure me that he is sensitive to these representations?

[Mr Willetts]

My hon. Friend is right. The first priority was to eliminate abuse so that people can have confidence that students are legitimate. We have now said that we will disaggregate the statistics so that students are separately identified. The next step is a positive education export strategy, which we will produce before the summer.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Willetts and Richard Fuller

Thursday 2nd February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Willetts]

That is why the Government have provided cash protection and ring-fenced the science and research budget, and why in the autumn statement we were able to announce significant increases in funding for the Technology Strategy Board.

[Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con)]

With no pressure from the Secretary of State for a cut in the jobs tax, no meaningful roll-back of job-destroying red tape, no pressure from him for a cut in enterprise-sapping tax rates and his lauding as a good example the pillorying of people for fulfilling their Government contract, can he advise me of what he is doing to encourage enterprise rather than to discourage it?