Understanding IP: Design and Economic Growth

May 2011

Business director Paul Leonard was one of six speakers at the Associate Parliamentary Design & Innovation Group’s seminar on intellectual property in design on 11 May, chaired by Mike Weatherley MP. There was general consensus that the IP protection regime in the UK inadequately reflects the annual investment in design and exposes designers to a real risk of copying.

In the construction industry, Paul asserted that it is only when design is perceived as an investment rather than as a cost that IP rights are respected. He illustrated the point with the temporary bus station designed by BJD for Bilbao, which could be dismantled and reassembled to provide 300 bus stops. IP was inherent not only in the form and function of the bus station but also in the strategic approach, which has clearly added value.

The event was organised in association with ACID (Anti-Copying in Design) as part of the consultative process under the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property, which is due for publication on Wednesday 18 May.

Link to Policy Connect report