Adelphi Charter

John Howkins has been explaining the importance of intellectual property in the latest ediion of Script-Ed.

"An observer of current debates on intellectual property would surely draw two conclusions. One is that IP touches fundamental elements of public policy: on where to draw the line between the public and the private and on where the market should be allowed free rein...

We believe there is an urgent need for a public debate, addressing the real issues of IP, in which politicians and academics and the public and industry can all take part with some common ground. The Adelphi Charter was written to start this debate going, and from the public’s not the industry’s point of view...

IP is important to society as well as to a few rights-holders, and that the current regime is far from perfect...

Whenever I am asked why we did it, I have two answers, The firstly, only half flippant, is, ‘Someone had to’. The second is to refer to something topical, such as the EU opt-out of the TRIPS clause on compulsory licensing for the import of generic drugs in the case of a public healthy emergency. It’s a safe guess that no politician would be happy defending that opt-out against a constituent who was short of tamiflu. It’s also a safe bet that no constituent would ever think of asking the question. I hope the Adelphi Charter has done something to make g both policy-makers and public more aware of what is going on. There are plenty more examples like that one."

Politicians and constituents alike are barely aware of the existence of IP let alone its importance. If a public health emergency did hit the UK and IP got in the way of dealing with it, I'm not sure even then that people would realise its importance because of the relative complexity of the IP landscape.