The IP Federation’s commitment to improving diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in the IP professions has continued to grow with the leadership of the dedicated DEI Working Group. This year the IP Federation held a Best Practice Workshop where members discussed and shared details of their DEI policies and procedures to identify and establish best practices. The Best Practice Workshop covered two areas – internal policies and external policies with suppliers. It was clear that there was a wide disparity between the policies and practices of our members and that while many have well developed systems and procedures, some members’ policies and practices are still in development. It was agreed that the workshop should be repeated to ensure continued sharing of best practice as learnings and feedback developed.

DAVID OVERINGTON LEWIS OBE was born on 17 November 1931 in Hampstead, London. David was educated at John Lyon School in North London and Northampton Engineering College. A founder member of the University of London Air Squadron, he was a pilot in the Royal Air Force on National Service, achieving the rank of Flying Officer in 1954. David qualified as a UK Registered Patent Agent (now Attorney) in 1961. He later became a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, a European Patent Attorney, a Registered Trade Mark Attorney, and a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys. On the retirement of Mr A. C. Price at the end of April 1964, David became the representative of Babcock and Wilcox Ltd on the Council of the Federation, attending his first meeting on Friday 8 May 1964. His attendance at Council was exemplary – and unique in duration. He attended his last meeting on Friday 10 January 2020 by phoning in. (Even before the Covid lockdowns later in 2020, remote attendance had become more common.) His last attendance in person had been on Friday 12 July 2019, when the Council meeting was followed by an Annual General Meeting of the Federation and a reception.

For two years the IP Federation has been actively engaged in championing the views of UK industry in design law through debate and submissions with various stakeholders and legislative bodies . Finally, some of the revised legal landscape is beginning to come into focus and the future challenges more apparent. At the end of the 2023, it was announced that the Council of the EU and the European Parliament had reached a provisional agreement on the first substantial review of the 20-year-old EU Design Law. Two of the most notable changes amongst the proposals are infringement provisions associated with 3D printing and digital transformation, as well as the permanent introduction into the law of the Repair Clause. It is proposed that only the owner of an EU registered design shall have the right to create, download, copy and share software recording the design for the purposes of making the design, thus curtailing efforts to avoid infringement via digital means. The introduction of the Repair Clause seeks to enshrine in the law the extent to which EU design right holders can prevent the use of spare parts of an identical appearance for the repair of a complex product. Interestingly, the proposed clause seeks to balance the interests of design owners, consumers and the replacement parts industry by deviating from the ruling by the CJEU in Acacia vs Audi & Porsche (joined cases C-397/16 and C‑435-16) by narrowing the exclusion to “must-match”-only replacement parts of complex products. The formal adoption by both the Council and Parliament of the proposals is expected in early 2024.

The IP Federation’s commitment to improving diversity and inclusion in the IP professions has been led by the dedicated D&I working group formed last year. Following the work on the IP Inclusive Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Charter, the group has focused upon the Senior Leaders’ Pledge. This has been an initiative of IP Inclusive which has been very successful with IP professionals working in private practice. It comprises a series of personal commitments to be made by senior leaders in an organisation to their actions to improve diversity and inclusion. It was identified that some of these pledge commitments might be difficult for an employee of a large organisation with its own diversity policies and strategies. A new Senior Leaders’ Pledge for leaders of departments in larger organisations, including our IP Federation members, has been agreed and will be launched over the next few months. This will allow our members to demonstrate their personal commitment to diversity and inclusion The IP Federation has continued to support outreach activities in 2022 that aim to promote and widen access to STEM careers and the IP professions.

The Question of improving diversity and inclusion in the UK's IP profession remains a key commit­ment of this organisation. Last year we planted a flag committing the IP Federation to do more in this area, and now we are making good on that commitment. Last year in The IP Federation Review we pointed to the dangers of the Covid-19 pandemic worsening accessibility to the IP profession and having an adverse impact on the number of available jobs. The likelihood was that this would particularly affect black, Asian and ethnic minority people who were suffering more from the impact of the pandemic and who are disproportionately over-represented in the poorer communities.  

Following the UK’s departure from the EU, holders of rights in designs have been busy ensuring continuity of rights and strategies for navigating the new scope of rights in the UK and the EU. As the dust settles from this flurry of activity, the future of design legislation in the EU is taking shape and the IP Federation has been active in presenting the view of UK industry.

Opening access to, as well as improving the diversity and inclusion of, the UK’s IP profession is of more importance now than ever. It is clear to all that the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are far reaching and are likely to impact on practically every area of society for generations to come. In the longer term, the economic impact is likely to have a particularly profound effect on social mobility, with the damage caused leading to fewer job opportunities, which will in turn likely fuel greater inequality of opportunity. The disproportionate impact of the disease on the black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) community is also well known and actively being discussed. Even before Covid-19 really hit in March this year, the topic of Diversity and Inclusion (in all its forms) in the IP profession was already top of my mind, as well as for others in the IP Federation. The IP Federation has a great history, turning 100 years old in April 2020, and as an industry association we have a great culture of respect for each other. Several of our Federation members helped to establish and support in its early days IP Inclusive, a pan-professional diversity task force committed to making the IP professions more inclusive for all those who have the necessary aptitude, regardless of their age, gender, race, sexual orientation, religion, physical ability, wealth or background. The Federation is also a member of its management board. Our collective response to Covid-19 shone a light on the care we have for one another, as described in our article ”IP owners step up to the plate”.

As 2018 moved into 2019, progress on the EU Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market (“EU Copyright Directive”) was looking shaky to say the least – a highly controversial IP bill; unprecedented lobbying and international media attention; celebrities such as Sir Paul McCartney and Lady Gaga campaigning in Brussels; and even death threats against politicians! The trilogue negotiations between the European Commission, European Parliament and the EU Council, each of which appeared to have a different view of the appropriate text, were dragging on and it looked like the negotiations were at stalemate or heading off the rails com­pletely … And then, rather suddenly and surprisingly speedily (presumably so as to keep ahead of the May 2019 European parliamentary elections), a ‘final’ version of the text was agreed and presented to European Parliament in February, and approved by the Parliament in March and then by the European Council in April. The EU Copyright Directive (EU 2019/790) came into force on 7 June 2019 and hence must be implemented by Member States by 7 June 2021.

This policy provides for the systematic review and retention of documents received or created by IP Federation in connection with the transaction of organisation business. This policy covers all records and documents, regardless of physical form, and contains guidelines for how long certain documents should be kept and the method by which, following expiry of the relevant retention period, records should be destroyed (unless under a legal hold). The policy is designed to ensure compliance with UK laws and regulations, to eliminate accidental or innocent destruction of records, and to facilitate IP Federation’s operations by promoting efficiency and freeing up valuable storage space.

The IP Federation Design and Copyright Committee has been resurrected, following a 10-year hiatus.

The time is right to resurrect the Committee.

It is an important time for design rights in the UK – the uncertainty posed by Brexit is a particular concern for IP Federation members, a significant proportion of which currently rely on Registered Community Designs (RCDs) and Unregistered Community Designs (UCDs) to protect their designs in the UK.

It is hoped that the newly re-formed Committee can continue the good work done by previous incarnations of the Committee.