Å®ÉúСÊÓƵ

The thousand people employed by the Patent Office in Newport, Gwent,
have mounted such a powerful campaign against the government’s privatisation
plans that the Department of Trade and Industry has again delayed its decision.
Kevin Etheridge, vice-chair of the trade unions’ campaign at the Patent
Office, believes nothing will now be done until November.

The plan to privatise the office dates back to June last year, when
Patrick McLoughlin, the DTI minister responsible for the Patent Office,
announced that accountants Price Waterhouse had been asked be review ‘the
possibility of putting some or all of the Patent Office into the private
²õ±ð³¦³Ù´Ç°ù’.

Price Waterhouse delivered its report to the DTI in March, but the unions
had by then campaigned to make opinion formers and policy makers aware of
the implications. The Gwent group has sent out over 6000 letters, and issued
14 reports on where individual MPs stand. Another 100 MPs were targeted
this month. Keith Williams, chair of the unions, has written to all patent
and trademark agents in Britain asking them to write to their MPs and the
DTI.

The European Intellectual Property Review published an opinion from
Christopher Morcom, QC, which supports the unions’ concern: ‘Any body exercising
judicial functions must be and be seen to be independent,’ he warns. ‘The
provisions for contracting out represent a serious threat to an important
part of the administration of justice.’

Michael Heseltine, President of the Board of Trade, recently confirmed
in a written Parliamentary answer to Neil Kinnock that he was still considering
Price Waterhouse’s report.