UK appoints members of new IP strategy board

John Denham: the board will be “at the heart of the IP system”.

Making the appointments, John Denham, Minister for Universities, Innovation and Skills said, “SABIP will be at the heart of the IP system, driving the thinking on emerging issues and providing strategic oversight of policy and advice to ministers.”

SABIP, which is not part of a government department, has a research budget to commission the empirical evidence to underpin its thinking and advice.

The board was set up following a recommendation of the Gowers’ Review of intellectual Property, published in December 2006, which criticised the existing system under which The Patent Office (since renamed the UK Intellectual property Office – another Gowers recommendation) had sole responsibility for advising the government on IP policy.

As a result, said Gowers, policy development had often been reactive and not taken into account changes in the economy and relevant developments in other areas. In addition, there was no clear separation between operational and policy functions in the Patent Office, leading to a potential conflict of interest; and the office did not have the requisite policy expertise.

Gowers went on the say that while the Patent Office had a good handle on operational matters it was less effective at taking a strategic view of IP policy, and had not always been effective at linking IP and other, related areas, such as, trade, health and broader innovation policy.

For example, it did not undertake any systematic work examining how the IP framework helped or hindered the development of Open Source software, or of proteomics.

Strategic overview

SABIP’s remit is to provide a strategic overview of policy, to challenge government policy-making and advise on how the UK’s interests should be pursued in international IP negotiations.

Gowers also argued that SABIP should have a budget with which to commission external research, an idea taken from the Japanese Patent Office, which sets aside a significant amount of money each year for research into IP-related policy issues. The office’s Institute of Intellectual Property has produced a wide range of policy reports analysing the changing environment for IP, and this is a key part of Japan’s strategic approach to Intellectual Property.

The members of the SABIP are Lynne Brindley, Chief Executive of the British Library; Cathy Garner, Chief Executive of Manchester Knowledge Capital; John Pickering, member of the Competition Appeal Tribunal and business consultant; Jonathan Spencer, former Director General at the Departments of Trade and Industry and Constitutional Affairs and member of the Solicitors’ Regulation Authority; and Iain Wilcock, Founder and Deputy Managing Director of Quester Capital, the healthcare investment company.