Not every reader of this weblog knows of the little treasure trove of original research that can be accessed by a single click if you aim your mouse just here. Courtesy of the IPO you can get some idea of
- where design investment and design rights are in the economy;
- how design rights are used in different sectors of UK industry;
- how design right use in the UK compares with France, Germany and others.
But there's more to come -- and this is where Class 99 readers come in. Says the IPO's Tony Clayton,
"To help us frame necessary changes we have also commissioned Alex Carter Silk and colleagues to look at the costs [there's much more to say about this topic] and benefits [... than this one] of the UK legal framework, and point up the issues we might solve. This has been going a couple of months now, and we are about to launch an online survey [before you ask: this has been well vetted].
Would you be willing to flag it on your weblog? We are keen to get as wide a response as we can -- from people who know where the bodies are buried".What with Easter and all that, this weblog is publicising the questionnaire rather later than it should have done. The deadline for submissions is this Friday, 20 April. Don't let that put you off, though: just access it here and do your bit. Many thanks in anticipation!
Following Professor Hargreaves' recommendations that IP policy in design had been neglected over the years there has been a flurry of activity with hurried research and short lead times, not to mention over lengthy questionnaires which the majority of SME’s simply do not have the time to answer. Much of the difficulty in addressing the regrettable fact that design policy has been neglected within IP is about first of all understanding the complexity of what the “design” sector actually is and its relevancy to innovation,
ReplyDeleteOne of the very simple reasons why France and Germany are so well ahead with design registrations (and policy) is that they have taken design seriously and concentrated on education, awareness underpinned by marketing, yes marketing the benefits of design registration for years. Having worked in Germany in the late 1990’s setting up an anti copying support system now adopted by Messe Frankfurt, it was clear then, some 15 years ago that both French and German designers were light years ahead in recognising the importance of protecting their designs. ACID helped to create an unofficial enforcement system at the exhibitions at which it had a presence. Further access to official enforcement through the Courts was also quick, easy and efficient leaving the perpetrators of design infringement in no confusion about the speed in which they would be dealt with so that the message was loud and clear. In Germany which has precision engineering in its DNA, the natural progression was to give the same national relevance to design. It is strange that in the UK we have not done the same. Maybe not fully recognising the significance of the UK’s engineers historically or contemporarily has led to this lamentable lack of recognition for the value of UK designers today?.
With fewer than 4000 UK design rights applications each year (OHIM doesn’t fair much better with approx 5000 from the UK) it is not surprising, therefore, that the majority of the UK's 232,000 design army of micro and SME's rely on unregistered rights (copyright, design right, trade marks and informal rights). Clearly, focus and research attention has been directed at design rights because the name itself would imply there is a fairly obvious connection but this reader cannot understand the absolute passion with which expensive research is being focused on the link between innovation and design rights rather than on first of all identifying and accurately defining 21st century design industry sectors with a UK Standard Industrial Code. Little analysis of the design sector has been undertaken until recently but current research indicates that it employs up to 350,000 and UK businesses spend approximately £35 billion on design annually. This is a strong reason to start from point zero by concentrating investment into creating a standard industrial code to act as an accurate basis and future benchmark upon which hard economic evidence can be gathered. It is important that another decade is not lost by creating hurried policy which may have unintended consequences from the basis of not really understanding or identifying the sectors within design which, collectively, are significant contributors to the UK’s GDP.