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Scottish Office

Answer

Mr. David Stewart: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what is the purpose and scope of the reservation of intellectual property in the Scotland Bill. [60441] Mr. McLeish: The purpose of the reservation is to ensure the continuation of uniform intellectual property laws across the UK. This will avoid difficulties for owners of intellectual property rights arising from, for example, difference in what can be protected, the extent of the protection and remedies for breach of rights. Indeed, the benefits of harmonisation in this area are becoming increasingly recognised with the ever wider harmonisation of intellectual property rights and related matters across Europe and the rest of the world. Patents, designs, registered trade marks and copyright are well known examples of intellectual property rights and are reserved. The reservation also embraces all other existing and future analogous rights and matters, such as rights in performances and semi-conductor topographies, moral rights, the law of passing off and trade secrets, and the new database right. Moreover, rights such as those in utility models and matters such as technical measures for the protection of copyright works and information relating to the management of rights, all of which are included in recent draft EC Directives on intellectual property, fall within the scope of the reservation. Furthermore, all matters relating to the Patent Office are reserved, as are current and future ancillary matters. The existing major legislation on intellectual property, namely the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, he Patents Act 1977, the Trade Marks Act 1994 and the Registered Designs Act 1949, exemplifies but does not limit the range of provisions relating to `intellectual property' which falls or may in the future fall within the reservation. There is just one exception from the reservation, that is UK plant breeders' rights within the meaning of the Plant Varieties Act 1997. Agricultural Ministers, that is the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and the Secretaries of State for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, are jointly responsible for UK plant breeders' rights. Devolution in this one area of intellectual property is therefore consistent with the joint responsibility which already exists for plant breeders' rights.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

319 c466W; 60441

Session

1997-98

Subjects

Devolution Plant breeders rights Scotland Standardisation