Your chance to re-make the UK’s IP laws in the image of a startup
Back in November last year the UK’s Prime Minister said he was announcing a number of initiatives aimed at technology companies. Since then there have been a few periphery announcements from the various large tech companies (Google, Facebook et al) about what they would do to help. But one thing that was on the agenda was a review of the Intellectual Property rules. PM David Cameron confirmed a six month review into IP law that he hopes will help attract technology companies to the UK.
In this article Mike Butcher of TechCrunch Europe urges tech company founders and entrepreneurs to make sure your voices are heard.
The US position on IP leans towards a ‘fair use’ environment, whereby IP can be used to a certain level without owner consent. This is very close the to Creative Commons licenses which aided the growth of startups like Flickr. In the UK copyrighted material is more highly restricted in use. Generally in Europe we rely too much on copyright and not enough on innovation. Witness Nokia’s suing of Apple for instance.
So in this new IP review web business models, costs and complications surrounding the enforcement of IP law ad the costs to startups for accessing services to protect their IP are all up for discussion.
And incredibly the government is putting its money where its mouth is. It’s appointed a panel of IP experts, chaired by Professor Ian Hargreaves, to review the IP system – including copyright, trademark, patent and design rights, along with more informal types of IP – and its effect on innovation.
They’re in the process of meeting with a wide range of people and on Tuesday, 15 February, they’re organising a meeting in London.
The thing is though, you can’t come to the meeting unless you submit your views first and get invited. In order to get a balanced mix of perspectives, they’re asking potential participants – entrepreneurs and startups – to fill out an application by Wednesday, 9 February (all information will be kept confidential). That’s tomorrow. The event is being organised with Coadec, the Coalition for a Digital Economy.
For full news story please see: TechCrunch