Will the new Truss government bring reform of the Scottish IP court one step closer?

Colin Hulme

Colin Hulme, chair of the conference and head of IP at Burness Paull LLP, said: “’When intellectual property is not fully protected, or technology transfer is enforced, innovators have no reason to carry on innovating.’ That is a direct quote from a speech our new Prime Minister Liz Truss gave at Chatham House’s ‘Global Live Trade’ event in 2020. It was evident that she considered effective protection of intellectual property in the UK and with our trading partners to be a key feature of her vision for UK trade policy. Those of us in the IP community will watch with interest to see if the new Truss government will follow through on the statement.

“We do not yet know if the Truss government will hold to Boris Johnson’s ambitious ‘levelling up’ policies. For my part, I see ensuring the UK IPO supports reform of the Scottish IP Court to be an important part of “levelling up”, so that rights holders in Scotland have the same opportunities to enforce those rights as those able to use the IPEC in London.  Of course, administration of the Scottish courts is devolved to the Scottish Parliament, but the UK IPO performs an important role across the UK.

“For the first time at the CLT Scotland IP Conference we have been able to secure a speaker from the UK IPO, which might offer an early opportunity to find out if our new Prime Minister is delivering on her stated support for intellectual property rights.  In addition to a representative from the IPO, we have a tremendous and varied line up of speakers from the SWA and William Grant & Sons, as well as two of our leading IP practitioners and Jon Moorhouse to discuss his recently published book on IP in the energy sector.”