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Intellectual Property Rights

My Lords, I am delighted to take part in this debate and to respond for the Government. The billing of my noble friend Lord McKenzie was on the basis that I was trying to come back from Brussels. In the event, I managed to do this with two minutes to spare. This is an extremely important and interesting area. I say to the noble Baroness, Lady Buscombe, that whatever the timing of the debate, the Government can show that they have been taking this   issue very seriously for the past 18 months to two years, since we published the innovation report in November 2003. In it we made a major statement about the importance of intellectual property rights and of the Patent Office taking forward an agenda involving enforcement and education as part of the importance of this area in the knowledge economy. I am sure that the noble Baroness is aware that our manifesto contained a reference to intellectual property and the creative industries. I failed to see such a reference in the Conservative Party manifesto, but then it was, of course, a very short document. The noble Baroness has already highlighted the importance of intellectual property rights for the UK creative industries. Intellectual property is very much at the heart of the creative industries, so I welcome the opportunity to set out the Government’s agenda in this area. For the purposes of this debate, I should like to make it clear that in talking about the creative industries, we are talking about music, film, software, publishing, design and broadcasting. These are all industries which depend critically on individual creativity, skill and talent as the starting point for their business success. The creative industries matter a great deal in our economy. They grew by an average of 6 per cent per annum between 1997 and 2002—twice the rate of the average growth for the whole economy during that period. Employment in the creative industries grew at a rate of 3 per cent per annum between 1997 and 2003, compared with 1 per cent for the economy as a whole. These figures, which are part of the statistical estimates for the creative industries compiled in August last year, are impressive. They show that the creative industries are an enormous asset to the UK and are growing very fast. The creative industries have, for some years, been facing the challenge of new technology—the digital revolution, including the expansion of the Internet and broadband roll-out. In a world where digital material can be passed over networks, including the Internet, almost instantaneously, the temptation for people to share music and other protected content illegally is great. The music industry has been at the forefront of seeing its traditional business models threatened by illegal uploading and downloading of its copyright material. New technology therefore means that it is   much more difficult to protect IP and preserve business models of the past. There is, however, cause for optimism. We are seeing more and more creative sectors identify and embrace the opportunities of new technology to grow their business. The music industry is at the forefront of this transformation, with a marked expansion of legal download sites over the past year or so. A recent newspaper report suggested that the number of legal downloads could overtake illegal activity in the next 12 months. It looks as if the   use of new business models and careful legal enforcement of IP is beginning to bring this problem under control, and we support the action which has been taken by the music industry to do so. On the protection of intellectual property rights, our recent business manifesto commitment clearly shows our strong commitment to tackle IP crime and other types of infringement. IP crime is a very serious threat, and a considerable amount of work has been done in recent years. That includes legislative changes in 2002 to increase the maximum penalties applying to copyright theft. In 2003, the law as it applies in the information society was clarified, and a new criminal offence to catch the most prolific illegal uploaders was created. As a result of the innovation report, which acknowledged the damage caused by IP crime to businesses dependent on IP, we set up the IP Crime Group, led by the Patent Office. This brings public sector enforcers and private sector right-holders together with government to deliver more effective enforcement on the ground. Last year we launched the IP Crime Strategy to underpin the work of the IP Crime Group. This year we published the first annual enforcement report, which will provide a firm base line from which we can measure the success of our future activity. We are also heavily engaged in setting up regional hubs for trading standards officers, modelled on the very successful one in the north-west. And we are refining the training resources available, something we specifically promised in the business manifesto. In the coming months, the results of better co-operation and co-ordination under the IP crime strategy will start showing. The creative industries are clearly helped by a commitment to deal with IP crime. However, in recognition of the challenges and opportunities faced by the creative industries as a result of rapid technological advance, I set up the Creative Industries Forum on Intellectual Property jointly with the former Minister for the Arts, Estelle Morris. The forum, comprising industry and other stakeholder interests as well as Ministers, set up three industry-chaired working groups to explore certain issues in more detail.