In an article in the Guardian newspaper, Professor Fiona Macmillan argues that lobbying by big corporations is blocking reform of IP laws.
Macmillan, who lectures at Birkbeck, University of London and the Univeristy of Roma Tre, writes that "the lobbying power of the corporations, which have convinced European
governments that the national and regional patrimony of innovation and
creativity is best protected in the service of their commercial
interests, are standing in the way of a meaningful and well-thought out
programme of reform".
She adds: "Instead of reforming intellectual property,
attention is increasingly turning to other legal devices that might
constrain the negative effects of the way in which power based on
intellectual property rights is exercised. Competition law is one
candidate for this role. Another emerging area is cultural rights, where
questions of creativity, cultural production and identity still retain
some vigour."
Macmillan also argues that proposals to limit the number of languages for the proposed EU patent "show scant regard for the cultural diversity embedded in the many languages of the European Union".