Asked by Lord Clement-Jones To ask Her Majesty’s Government
what assessment they have made of the impact on the fashion and
other design-based industries of the potential loss of European
unregistered design rights for United Kingdom-generated designs
following Brexit. The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State,
Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Lord
Henley) (Con) ...Request free
trial
Asked by
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To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have
made of the impact on the fashion and other design-based
industries of the potential loss of European unregistered
design rights for United Kingdom-generated designs following
Brexit.
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The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for
Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (Lord Henley)
(Con)
My Lords, as expressed in the United Kingdom technical note
on other separation issues, where the UK does not have
existing domestic legislation to protect certain types of
rights, it will establish new schemes. This will preserve the
full scope of the unregistered Community design right in the
United Kingdom.
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(LD)
My Lords, the hard exit from the EU means the loss of EU
unregistered Community design rights and of vital protection
for designers who first disclosed their design in the UK.
This is just the way to lose London Fashion Week. We have
discussed the problems with loss of country of origin rights
for our broadcasters. Is this not yet another example of why
the creative industries want us to remain in the single
market?
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My Lords, I am not going to get into the wider debate about
the EU at this stage, but what I can say, to expand on my
Answer, is that we will bring forward various statutory
instruments in this country to further our rights here. The
negotiations will take place with the EU as part of the
leaving process, which we hope will deal with these matters,
but there are also, as the noble Lord is fully aware, what I
think I can call inclarities in the current EU regulations,
which obviously need to be sorted out by the EU itself.
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(Lab)
My Lords, in framing new law for the period following Brexit,
will the Government be mindful that intellectual property
rights create monopolies? Will they therefore reflect
carefully on the appropriate balance within the UK’s future
intellectual property regime between the producer interest
and the consumer interest and make sure that they are not
unduly influenced by producer lobbies?
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My Lords, obviously we will take account of all those who
have an interest. The noble Lord is right to draw that to my
attention. He will be aware that we went through a major
reform of intellectual property rights with the 2014 Act,
which I think was discussed at length in this
House—fortunately, I was not involved. I am not sure that the
noble Lord would want to go through that process again, but
there are some minor changes that need to be made as a result
of leaving.
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(LD)
My Lords, not only will we need reciprocal arrangements with
the European Union with regard to intellectual property,
including unregistered design rights, does the Minister
accept that we will also need them with regard to enforcement
of intellectual property rights, currently carried out in
part by Europol? How will that enforcement be carried out?
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My Lords, again, that will be a matter for discussion as part
of the leaving process.
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(Lab)
My Lords, we have a problem of indecision. Organisations such
as fashion week will disappear from London. The amount of GDP
that fashion week brings to this country is enormous. As we
are not doing very well in other parts of the world, we
really need it to continue. Will the Government assure those
industries that they are welcome here, and do so quite
quickly, otherwise they will look to go to Paris and Milan,
because they are asking and baiting them to come?
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My Lords, the noble Baroness is taking a rather pessimistic
view of things, but we are aware of those risks. When one
thinks of the strengths of the industry in this country, I
think it is very unlikely to leave overnight. We will be in
discussion with people such as those at the British Fashion
Council and listen to their particular concerns. As I said,
we will continue with our negotiation as part of the leaving
process.
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(Con)
Did my noble friend notice the highly successful Commonwealth
fashion event the other week, which demonstrated that London
fashion was roaring ahead regardless of Brexit? It involved
wider-world influences in a highly successful and
satisfactory way.
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My Lords, sadly, I missed that, but I am very grateful to my
noble friend for bringing it not only to my attention but,
more importantly, to the attention of the House.
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of Kentish Town
(Lab)
My Lords, as a dedicated follower of fashion—that gives away
one’s age, does it not?—I would add that although the IP
itself is important, we also need our lawyers to continue to
represent any of our designers when they appear in courts in
other countries. We also need the models and others to be
able to move across borders so that they can perform or show
their wares. Will the Minister give some assurance that, in
the discussions on Brexit and the ability to move for work,
this will be uppermost in their minds?
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Yes, my Lords, we will take the point about lawyers into
account, and I will make sure that the noble Baroness’s
concerns are brought to the attention of my honourable and
right honourable colleagues. As regards others such as models
moving abroad, I think that there will probably be no problem
whatever, because there will be a particular attraction to
making sure that English models and all others involved in
the fashion industry are able to work in Europe and sell
their wares.
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(Con)
My Lords, I wonder whether my noble friend can tell me
whether we have any problem with the Americans, for example,
behaving in a dastardly, unfair way, as Lib Dem Peers fear
our European friends would behave if we were not in the EU.
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My Lords, I think I had better confine myself purely to
questions about fashion rather than other areas, but on that
particular subject I can agree with my noble friend.
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(LD)
My Lords, does the noble Lord’s department have an estimate
yet of how many statutory instruments will be required to
fulfil the pledge he has just given us? Will those statutory
instruments be by the affirmative or the negative procedure?
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My Lords, on the overall number of statutory instruments that
will be required, different people have put forward different
estimates of very large numbers. As regards this particular
subject, as far as I know, we need just one statutory
instrument. There might be more, and I will write to the
noble Lord if that is the case. Whether they will be
affirmative or negative is again something that I cannot
answer at this stage, but I will write to the noble Lord if a
decision has been made.
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(Lab)
My Lords—
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(Lab)
My Lords—
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(Con)
My Lords—
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Noble Lords
This side!
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The Minister of State, Ministry of Defence (Earl Howe)
(Con)
My Lords, I have taken a note of the speakers who have
contributed, and it is the turn of the Conservatives.
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My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend on his excellent
Answer to the original Question. The Liberal Democrats’
refusal to accept this clearly portrays a lack of confidence
in this country’s ability to govern itself. Does he think
that that is simply a lack of confidence in this country, or
that it might be because the Liberal party will never be in
government again?
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I did serve in government with the Liberal Democrat party in
the past. Whether that will happen again is a matter for
speculation, but I suspect it is unlikely that I would be
part of that, and one would hope that the Liberals would not
be part of it either.
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