Intellectual Property (Unjustified Threats) Bill [HL]
Debate between Viscount Hanworth and Baroness Wilcox(8 years ago)
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Viscount Hanworth (Lab)
I shall speak to Amendment 20, which has already been spoken to by the noble Baroness, Lady Bowles. This is a residue of an amendment to new Section 21A(2) proposed by CIPA, the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys. Its concern, shared by other witnesses, is that the Bill does not make adequate provision for infringements of rights that are common in e-commerce.
It was agreed that CIPA’s amendment was opaque and misplaced within the text of the Bill. The witnesses from the BBC, which is involved in such commerce, have offered alternative amendments that I have undertaken to propose. The noble Baroness, Lady Bowles, has proposed similar amendments, which I think we more or less agree are interchangeable. Those amendments are in the fourth group and I shall speak to them later.
Amendment 20 declares that a threat is not actionable if it relates to the kind of infringements that are common in e-commerce. It is a counterpart to later amendments that deal with permitted communications and provides a necessary link to them. That is why I have tabled Amendment 20.
Baroness Wilcox (Con)
This is the point in the Bill where I think I can best make a contribution. The Intellectual Property (Unjustified Threats) Bill is legally satisfactory, but its difficulty lies in how it will operate in the real world. Specifically, for the many good changes that it contains to operate effectively, businesses must be fully aware of them and confident about their application. This is a problem particularly for SMEs, which often struggle to understand the complex law in the field of intellectual property. In the area of threats, it comes down to exactly what they can and cannot do and why.
The lack of engagement by SMEs with the Bill, especially an absence of written evidence, is a concerning indication of the difficulties that they face in the area. I have had my own SME and have personal experience of what it is like to receive an unexpected telephone call from a large company telling me that what I am doing is not quite right and that they would be happy to help me out and even to give me a payment for my trouble. So I understand the fact that most people running a small business are not reading all sorts of bits of paper to see what comes next for them. They cannot afford secretaries or legal fees while they are getting their businesses going. It is important for us to get small businesses going and up to that medium size where they are more secure and able to take the advice that they need.
I have one or two potential solutions that the Minister might like to think about. First, I would insert an amendment before Clause 7 reading: “Communication. The Intellectual Property Office shall take steps to ensure that the changes to the law relating to unjustified threats made by this Act are communicated to businesses in the United Kingdom, with a particular focus on communicating them to small and medium-sized enterprises in the United Kingdom”. This would be helpful, for example, in notifying businesses that professional advisers should no longer ask for indemnities to write to an alleged infringer or help them understand the permitted communication provisions of the Bill by setting out the examples listed.
A second solution might be the appointment of a champion for small businesses—we did this with the ombudsman for the grocery business. I am sure that the Minister does not want to find herself having to invent something, but if there is not good representation on the face of the Bill, the chances are that very little of it will feed down to small businesses. The appointment of a champion for small businesses in the field of intellectual property would be welcome. Such a champion could ensure that SMEs are fully aware of their rights and what they can and cannot do in the area of threats, and that big business could not exploit its superior understanding of intellectual property law to gain unfair advantages over SMEs.
Thirdly, a designated lead in the IPO to offer advice to small businesses about approaching and dealing with the threats provisions, while stopping short of offering actual legal advice, would also be welcome. I worked with the Intellectual Property Office when I was a Minister for Intellectual Property. Prior to that, back when I was running a small business, it was one telephone call I made to the Intellectual Property Office when I was told, “Sign nothing. Say nothing. We’ll send someone”. That is exactly the sort of help I would hope for. A small business that is approached or attacked by a large business would find that they could make a phone call and somebody would be there to answer.
Finance: Equity Markets
Debate between Viscount Hanworth and Baroness Wilcox
Viscount Hanworth
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the findings of the Kay review of United Kingdom equity markets and long-term decision-making; and whether they intend to take any consequential action.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Baroness Wilcox)
My Lords, the Kay review’s interim report, published in February, presented a discussion on a wide range of issues highlighted by respondents to the review’s call for evidence. It did not include any firm conclusions or recommendations. We expect Professor Kay to make the recommendations in his final report in the summer and it would not be appropriate for the Government to prejudice Professor Kay’s findings ahead of the final report.
Viscount Hanworth
I am surprised by the Minister’s appraisal of the Kay report. However, will she concede that the rules of corporate government in the UK are in need of drastic revision? Does she not recognise the virtue of restricting the voting rights to shareholders who have long-term interests in companies in which they have invested, and is it not clear to her that the advisory role of shareholders on remuneration gives them insufficient powers to constrain the exorbitant executive awards that we have seen in recent times?
Baroness Wilcox
My Lords, as the noble Viscount will know, the review forms a key part of the action taken following the department’s A Long-Term Focus for Corporate Britain: A Call for Evidence, which was published in October 2010. We are exploring the issues of economic short-termism in the UK alongside executive pay and narrative reporting. Of course we are concerned. We have put forward this independent investigation by Professor Kay so that the very points that the noble Lord has mentioned will be addressed.