The Intellectual Property Regulation Board, IPReg, has launched a wide-ranging review of its regulatory arrangements. The process included a call for evidence from interested stakeholders.
IP Inclusive’s response to that call urges IPReg, among other things:
- to take due account of the impact of its current and future regulatory arrangements on diversity and inclusivity within, and the accessibility of, the patent and trade mark professions.
- to consider their impact not only on diversity among patent and trade mark professionals, but also on the diversity of business models and consumer choices within the IP sector.
- to commission independent EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) impact assessments for this purpose, to ensure that the regulatory arrangements do not disadvantage, discourage, or present a disproportionate barrier to entry or progression for, any particular group of people.
We also applaud IPReg’s intention to adopt high-level, broadly-stated regulatory principles where possible and to require evidence to justify prescriptive rules. We point out that the more flexibility available to professionals and their employers, in determining how they comply with the high-level principles, the more likely they are to be able to accommodate and nurture a diverse and inclusive workforce.
You can read our full response to the call for evidence here.
IPReg has since published a summary of the responses it received, which references many of IP Inclusive’s contributions.