Intellectual Property Bill [Lords]

Gordon Birtwistle Excerpts

Monday 20th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Gordon Birtwistle (Burnley) (LD)]

I do not want to delay the House long because I have just a few comments, mainly about business growth created by the design industry across the country. The design industry alone is worth £33.5 billion, but we could put many billions on top of that given the manufacturing that takes place from designs that are developed in this country. It is vital to protect that industry from those who try to copy and fraudulently get involved in it.

There is a company in my constituency that one would not think was a massive designer of equipment for the film industry. In fact, however, AMS Neve designs the music mixing systems that are used by all the main pop groups and pop singers across the world, and it was the main designer of the music mixing systems for the film “The King’s Speech”. For that, the owner, Mark Crabtree, got a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award. It is extremely unusual for somebody working in manufacturing to get such an award. It was developed, designed and manufactured in my constituency. It is so high-tech that he has a problem protecting his designs.

The games industry and the fashion industry are other major industries for which it is vital that we protect design. Many industries are desperate to steal our major designs. Burnley college has an amazing design department. The people there design clothes of the future, particularly for the Asian market. They need their designs to be protected, which will happen under the Bill.

It is important that we protect those industries because 350,000 people work in them. We cannot put such industries at risk. They are high-tech, and are in the main developed by graduates and students of our universities. The Bill needs to be developed to ensure that they are protected against fraudsters and other people around the world who would be delighted to get into those industries. We are No. 1 in intellectual property.

[Bob Stewart]

It crosses my mind that it must be extremely difficult to protect our industries when countries —I am perhaps thinking of one very large country in Asia—believe it is in their interests to steal designs for things such as games and do not seem to give a damn about intellectual property.

[Gordon Birtwistle]

I agree with the hon. Gentleman. When I was in engineering, we did a staggering amount of work for a local company that made wallpaper machinery. The company lost the majority of the manufacture of the kit but managed to hang on to the high-tech part of it. The country to which my hon. Friend is alluding could not develop the high-tech part, but it could do the basic engineering—the steelwork and building the machines. Fortunately, that equipment is secured in the UK, because that country has not yet developed the skills to develop the high-tech part—changing the machine for the different colours used in the manufacture of wallpaper. The situation is the same in the carpet industry. That country can make the machines easily, but it cannot develop the technology to produce the carpet patterns.

I am delighted with the Bill and am pleased that the majority of hon. Members agree with it—there seems to be no opposition to it at all. I hope that, in Committee, any problems with clauses 13 and 21 are resolved so that we have a good, solid, secure Bill in the House on Third Reading. I hope that we can put the legislation on the statute book to protect the industries of the future and the jobs of the people working in them.