A line-by-line examination of the Intellectual Property Bill will begin in the House of Lords this afternoon (July 23), when peers will debate offences committed by partnerships, unauthorised copying of a design protected by design right and exceptions for private copying.
This examination is called the report stage, which gives all members of the Lords a further opportunity to examine and make amendments to a Bill. This stage can be spread over several days but is generally shorter than the committee stage, which precedes it.
The Bill was drawn up in response to a consultation on the reform of the UK Designs Legal Framework. The proposed reforms include further harmonisation with EU law and changes to registered design enforcement.
Its purpose is to modernise aspects of the law relating to Intellectual Property (IP) and was first introduced to the Lords on 9 May 2013. According to the Intellectual Property Office (IPO), the Bill will support business in driving economic growth and innovation and will encourage enterprise and expand the range of economic sectors in the UK.
The IPO maintains that the main benefits of the Bill will be to save UK businesses up to £40m a year in language translation costs, when applying for Europe-wide patent, and will benefit the UK economy by around £200m a year through hosting part of the Unified Patent Court in London.
In addition, the IPO says, the Bill will simplify and strengthen design protection for UK businesses, make the IP system clearer and more accessible to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and will ensure that the UK IP system is operating efficiently.
After the report stage, the Bill is reprinted to include all the agreed amendments and then moves to a third reading, giving the Lords a further chance to discuss and amend the bill as it nears its conclusion.