Ian Hargreaves on Adapting IP to the Digital Age

• Author: Ian Hargreaves
• Position: Professor
• Pages: 11-13

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11

IAN HARGREAVES

ON ADAPTING IP TO

THE DIGITAL AGE

continent: from China to Brazil and from the U.S.

to France and the Republic of Korea.

Why have reactions been so positive, even enthu-

siastic in places? This is certainly not a tribute to

my personal command of technical or legal detail.

My background is in journalism and academia, not

in IP law or the younger subject of IP economics.

For some of those with whom I have debated the

issues, this was, and remains, a subject of suspicion:

how can someone without a lifetime of experience

in IP provide sound guidance on strategic policy

direction in this area?

That response, I believe, misses two important

points: that the U.K. review was underpinned by

the expertise of the U.K. IP Oce, which provided

In commissioning the review of the relationship

between the U.K.’s IP framework and econom-

ic growth and innovation, Prime Minister David

Cameron said he wanted to ensure that the coun-

try’s IP laws were “t for the Internet age.” He cited

the workings of the “fair use” defense against copy-

right infringement in the U.S. and how these had

been used by American companies (for example,

Google) to build dynamic new businesses on the

Internet.

Within the U.K., the reaction to this announcement

was initially unenthusiastic. Four similar reviews

had been undertaken in the previous six years, and

the follow-through to implementation had been

weak in every case.

One year on, the picture looks a little dierent. We

completed the review in the six months allocated

and, in May 2011, presented the government with

10 recommendations. Given the time constraints,

we focused on what seemed to be the most urgent

and strategically important issues. Experience from

previous reviews meant we were inclined to make

a small number of strong recommendations, so

that no one would ignore the strategic intent of

our ndings by focusing on points of detail.

Following a period of reection, in early August

2011, ministers endorsed our 10 recommendations

more or less in their entirety. They established a

legislative timetable for implementation involving

a white paper to be issued in the spring of 2012,

with a view to legislating, where necessary, in the

current Parliament – that is, by 2014.

More surprising than that rm and clear political

response (from a governing coalition) was the

international reaction to the review. WIPO Director

General Francis Gurry commented, on its day of

publication, that the review would be of consid-

erable international interest – and he was right.

The review has attracted attention from every

In November 2010, U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron announced an independent review of the national

intellectual property (IP) framework. The aim was to assess what needed to be done to ensure that the

U.K.’s IP arrangements were well adapted to cope with changing IP realities and to support innovation

and economic growth in the digital age. Digital Opportunity: A Review of Intellectual Property and Growth,

published in May 2011, has attracted widespread international interest. Professor Ian Hargreaves, who led

the review, considers why.

Ian Hargreaves

Photo: Guilhem Alandry