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Associate Parliamentary Design & Innovation

Associate Parliamentary Design & Innovation

Seminar on "Understanding IP: Design & Economic Growth"

Wednesday 11th May 2011
9.00-10.00am
House of Commons

Design Intellectual Property (IP) is critical to economic growth, particularly in the realm of manufacturing; an ability to protect design IP is fundamental to driving innovation in firms, ensuring investment, and protecting income.

Yet while Design IP is currently protected by 'design right' and 'registered designs', the legislation can be unclear and difficult to enforce. Moreover, SMEs often suffer from a poor understanding of IP, and the cost of protection and enforcement can be prohibitively high.

Because of this, copying of designs is rife, undermining British manufacturing.

To explore this important issue in greater depth, as the current IP review progresses, please join the debate, chaired by Mike Weatherly MP and led by our speakers:

• Chi Onwurah MP, Labour Member for Newcastle-upon-Tyne Central, and Shadow Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills, with responsibility for IP, will discuss the importance of government setting the right IP framework.

• Dids Macdonald, CEO of Anti Copying in Design which campaigns for better protection of designs, will outline some of the challenges small firms face.

• Sebastian Conran, an internationally-recognised British designer, and Paul Leonard of Billings Jackson, the industrial design firm designing the line-wide components for the Crossrail project, will discuss their take on the importance of protecting company designs.

• Professor James Moultrie, from Cambridge University, will introduce the early stage findings of research currently being run by Cambridge, the Design Council and the IPO, looking at whether businesses are aware of design rights, and how they use them.

To attend, please contact Jocelyn Bailey, email: jocelyn.bailey@policyconnect.org.uk; tel:0207 202 8588

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