Is the Gowers review destined to languish in a drawer? Jeremy Drew and Georgia Warren report
The Gowers Review of Intellectual Property (the review) was launched with fanfare in December 2005. Gordon Brown announced that he had asked Andrew Gowers, previously editor of the Financial Times, to conduct an independent review of the UK intellectual property (IP) framework. No small task.
A very short two-month window was imposed for any submissions. A creditable 517 responses were received from a wide range of companies and organisations, from the obvious, to the less obvious such as the rock group Pink Floyd.
The detailed 141-page report was published in December 2006 and set out 54 recommendations to “deliver a robust intellectual property framework for the digital age” including tackling IP crime and reforming copyright law to allow uses consistent with the digital age.
Gowers stated early on that he did not think that the IP system was in need of a “radical overhaul”. While this may have been a disappointment to some, it is a prudent and pragmatic conclusion given that the UK IP
