Friday 24 April 2015

A manifesto is born

10 March 2015

Mr Davies has condensed 52 pages of flip chart scribbles into two pages of proper, posh CIPA manifesto.  It is impressive.  He has peppered it with long words to make us think we actually came up with something cogent at our not-a-Council-meeting.  And he has set the noun:verb ratio suitably high so as to show the government that we are a Proper Serious Institute, which is also why a lot of the document is in the passive voice and the nothing-to-do-with-me-this-is-a-declaration-from-on-high third person singular.  CIPA is proud of its manifesto and the reader is invited to support it.

Mr Davies was no ordinary plumber.  His customers were invited to attend to the maintenance of their own drainage outlets.

Of course, we do not know which flavour of government will ultimately have to deal with our noun-rich proposals.  However, it seems likely that whoever takes charge of the UK this May, they are going to take some persuading that IP is a big agenda item, and that is exactly what this manifesto is for.  We want the world to be in no doubt about its priorities when it comes to intangible assets.

We will be doing a separate Idiot’s Guide to IP for Those in Power, and that will not be peppered with long words and passive verbs.  It will be more along the lines of: This is a patent.  This is a trade mark.  Jane has a patent.  Peter has a patent.  The patent is not copyrighted.  The trade mark is nothing to do with the performing arts.  No-one has patented human life yet.  The creative industries are not the only ones who have IP.  Look, Jane, this is an engineer!

I add my comments to Mr Davies’s amazing draft.  They don’t make it any better.  But they do make me feel useful.

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