Governance
The 9 recommendations relating to the governance of the IP system and the implementation timeline.
| Recommendation | Implementation timeline |
|---|---|
| Recommendation 46: Establish a new Strategic Advisory Board for IP policy (SABIP), covering the full range of IP rights, reporting to the minister responsible, by 2007. The Board should be drawn from a wide range of external experts as well as key senior policy officials from relevant government departments, and should be based in London. £150,000 should be allocated to fund the secretariat by the Patent Office. | Secretariat established May 2006. Chair and five Board members appointed May 2007. SABIP formally established 2 June. 3rd Board meeting scheduled for September. |
| Recommendation 47: The Patent Office should provide an annual IP strategic analysis fund of £500,000 managed by the policy advisory board in consultation with the IP Policy Directorate. | The Board of SABIP has written to Ministers outlining ideas for its work programme. Five project groups have been set up to do scoping work over the summer. The Board hopes to have its work programme finalised in the autumn. |
| Recommendation 48: Patent Office should introduce a clear split of responsibility between delivery and policy directorates. | Completed |
| Recommendation 49: Encourage IP policy officials to obtain policy experience outside the IP Policy Branch, and support short industry placement schemes for policy staff. | Completed |
| Recommendation 50: Realign UK Patent Office administrative fees to cover costs more closely on Patent Office administrative operations (e.g. granting patents). | Implementation of all other Gowers recommendations requiring action by the Patent Office requires funding to be in place. Together with HMT, we are working through the legislative basis for funding all our activities, and any changes required. Once resolved, we will consult on, and implement, fee changes with a likely overall reduction in fee levels. |
| Recommendation 51: Increase the transparency of Patent Office financial reporting. | We completed preparations for these changes for 2007/08. Following an audit recommendation we postponed implementation until completion of the legislative review indicated in recommendation 50. |
| Recommendation 52: Ensure that under current arrangements in the Patent Office, there is a clear internal separation of responsibility between the granting of rights and disputes over their ownership or validity. This should be achieved by clearly separating the line management structures. | Completed |
| Recommendation 53: Change the name of the UK Patent Office to the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK-IPO) to reflect the breadth of functions the office has, and to dispel confusion. | Completed on 2 April 2007 |
| Recommendation 54: DCA should review the issues raised in relation to IP cases and the fast track, and seek views in the context of its forthcoming consultation paper, which will consider the case track limits, and how the claims process can be made more timely, proportionate and cost-effective. It should bring forward any proposals for change by the end of 2007. | The Ministry of Justice have now completed this consultation and the Government Response  was published on 21 July 2008. The conclusions include the following:The handling of Intellectual Property claims 7. The Government welcomes the range of suggestions made by the respondents, particularly the support for increased use of mediation, which we fully endorse. In response to the comments from respondents that claimants are being deterred from bringing low value IP claims due to high legal costs, we will consider with the judiciary whether all IP claims need to be allocated to the multi-track. |
