Sponsored by Exensor
www.exensor.com
————————————————————————-
29 Jul 21. IP at the heart of new innovation strategy. The UK government’s innovation strategy sets out how the UK aims to be a global leader in innovation and a strong intellectual property system will be key to make that happen. Innovation is critical in tackling the UK’s biggest challenges, including achieving Net Zero, levelling up growth across the country, achieving our ambitions as a global trading nation and economic recovery from the Covid pandemic. IP will play a central role in creating the right environment to meet these challenges. An effective IP system gives confidence to businesses, creators and investors that ideas will be protected and they can get a return for their work.
The Strategy outlines how IP will address its four pillars of unleashing business, supporting people and skills, serving the needs of institutions and places and stimulating missions and technologies. Specifically, the IPO will:
- launch a new ‘IP Access’ fund that will help businesses to grow and to build back better from the Covid pandemic. Building on the already successful IP audit plus programme, this new scheme will support businesses to manage and commercialise their IP so that they can use the value within their IP assets to grow their business
- launch a new, free, fit for purpose support offer for businesses and organisations to make the most of their IP in overseas markets. The service will consist of easy to access, ‘self-serve’, online materials and clearer routes to access the UK’s network of IP experts based in key export markets around the world
- extend its education programme to reach more higher education-based researchers during the next academic year. This will help them better understand and manage the IP they create and generate the maximum benefit from their research
In addition, the IPO will consult a number of issues to strengthen the UK’s IP system, and in the Autumn it will consult on the protection of inventions and creations made by artificial intelligence (AI) with minimal human input. Following its 2020 call for views the IPO will look at options to address whether patents should be granted to inventions, and copyright should apply to creative works, created by AI.
The IPO will also lead a call for views to better understand how the current framework for Standard Essential Patents (SEPs) is functioning to support innovation, and to establish whether change is needed.
The IPO set out in its Corporate Plan a programme of work that will support the government’s focus on innovation including developing an IP & Innovation Passport and an IP in Finance strategy alongside a framework linking IP to stages in the business lifecycle. It will also publish a Places Strategy and along with existing regional posts that will support the levelling up agenda.
The IPO’s Chief Executive Tim Moss said, “Innovation is critical in tackling the UK’s biggest challenges both now and in the future. The UK’s new Innovation Strategy is the starting point for the government’s long-term vision of how we will cement our role as global leaders in innovation and deliver the target of R&D investment at 2.4% of GDP – and it has IP running through the heart of it. The strategy recognises that a strong IP system, that protects and allows for a return on investment on ideas, creates the confidence on which this success is built. We know that innovation is the engine of the modern economy and we’re proud of the contribution we’re making to drive that forward.”
The government’s Innovation Strategy was published by the Secretary of State for Business on 22 July. More information on the IP elements can be found in the ‘Safeguarding Intellectual Property’ section of the strategy.
The IPO’s Corporate Plan was published in May and sets out its priorities over the coming business year (2021-22). The IPO is the official UK government body responsible for intellectual property (IP) rights including patents, designs, trade marks and copyright. It operates and maintain a clear and accessible intellectual property system in the UK, which encourages innovation and helps the economy and society to benefit from knowledge and ideas. It helps people get the right type of protection for their creation or invention. (Source: https://www.gov.uk/)
27 Jul 21. UK establishes Western Balkans Land Regional Coordination Cell. Western Balkans Land Regional Coordination Cell will focus on UK capacity building efforts. A Macedonian Army BMP-2 amphibious infantry fighting vehicle during a military parade in Skopje. Credit: Armija na Republika Makedonija. UK Ambassador Rachel Galloway has signed an agreement to establish a permanent military training team in North Macedonia. The agreement was also signed by North Macedonia Defence Minister Radmila Shekerinska.
Known as the ‘Western Balkans Land Regional Coordination Cell’, the small military team will be involved in coordinating and directing UK training into the region.
The cell will focus on UK capacity-building efforts and improve defence cooperation between the UK and its Western Balkan partner forces.
UK Armed Forces Minister James Heappey said: “The agreement signed today underlines the UK’s commitment to enhancing cooperation with our partners in the Western Balkans and takes our defence relationship with our friends there to a new level. We look forward to working closer than ever to ensure security in this important region.”
North Macedonia joined Nato in March last year.
The Western Balkans Land Regional Coordination Cell will also support other regional Nato partners in meeting Nato-membership related capability targets.
The newly established cell will help coordinate British support for North Macedonia in delivering a light infantry battalion ready for next year’s Nato operation.
In its recently published Defence Command Paper, the UK stated that the British Armed Forces will closely work with partners in the Western Balkans to maintain and promote peace and security at regional and international levels. (Source: army-technology.com)
28 Jul 21. UK Government’s ECJU Publishes Annual Report on UK Strategic Export Controls. The U.K. government’s Export Control Joint Unit (ECJU) has published its United Kingdom Strategic Export Controls Annual Report 2020. Among the report’s highlights are:
- During 2020, ECJU processed around 15,700 Standard Individual Export Licence applications, completing 62% within 20 working days against the published target of 70%. The ECJU acknowledges this drop in our performance against our primary target.
- Strengthening arms control regimes remained a high priority in 2020. The United Kingdom continued to play a pivotal role in supporting the effective implementation of the Arms Trade Treaty. As a major donor to the Voluntary Trust Fund, and a member of its Selection Committee, the United Kingdom was closely involved in the scrutiny of bids and funding of ten projects aimed at supporting effective Treaty implementation.
- The Secretary of State for International Trade took the necessary steps to comply with the judgment of the Court of Appeal of 20th June 2019 in respect of licences for military exports to Saudi Arabia for possible use in the conflict in Yemen. A written statement setting out these steps was laid in Parliament on 7th July 2020. HM Government took decisive action on the National Security Law which China imposed on the people of Hong Kong by extending to Hong Kong the arms embargo that we have applied to mainland China since 1989.
- The Compliance Team carried out 22 first-time contact engagements with those new to exporting, and 385 site checks (including revisits) in 2020. The Compliance Team issued 51 warning letters to Company Directors during 2020, where breaches of licence conditions were identified. Overall, this is a four percentage point decrease from 2019. Two exporters surrendered licences that did not cover their goods. Surrendering licences helps avoid repeat offences. Three exporters had a licence suspended due to repeat infractions.
- HMRC continued to work with Border Force and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to undertake a wide range of enforcement activities throughout 2020. This activity included:
- 160 seizures of strategic goods. These are cases where goods were presented for export and found to be in breach of licensing requirements or sanctions and embargoes
- 103 end-use cases, where non-listed items were stopped from leaving the United Kingdom and brought within export controls. This control is used if there is a risk that the goods would be put to an illicit military or WMD end-use
- 19 compound penalties paid totalling £700,368.01. HMRC issued 19 companies with compound settlement offers ranging from £1,000 to £211,250 for unlicensed exports of military goods, dual-use goods, and related activity controlled by The Export Control Order 2008
- 67 HMRC warning letters issued (Source: glstrade.com)
27 Jul 21. US defence secretary questions Britain’s pivot to Asia. Lloyd Austin doubts use of limited UK military assets as new carrier arrives in region. US defence secretary Lloyd Austin: ‘We have interests around the globe and we want to make sure that we work together to address all those interests.’ The US defence secretary said on Tuesday that Britain might be more helpful as an ally if it did not focus on Asia, highlighting US concerns that forays by European allies into the Indo-Pacific could weaken defences closer to home. “We have interests around the globe and we want to make sure that we work together to address all those interests,” Lloyd Austin said in Singapore on Tuesday. “[Military] resources are scarce . . . As we look to balance our efforts in various parts of the world, we are not only looking to help each other in the Indo-Pacific but we are looking to ensure that we help each other in other parts of the world as well,” he added. “We [could] focus a bit more here, and […] the UK can be more helpful in other parts of the world.” Austin’s remarks will come as a blow to the British government, which has sent its new aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth, to the region. The ship and its escorts passed through the Strait of Malacca on Tuesday into the South China Sea, waters disputed between China and several of its neighbours. The choice of the carrier’s first operational deployment was designed to “fly the flag for Global Britain”, said UK defence secretary Ben Wallace ahead of its departure this year. Last week, the Royal Navy confirmed it was to deploy two warships to the Indo-Pacific region permanently. Austin is the first US official to openly address doubts whether deployments to Asia-Pacific are the most efficient use of British military assets. Although Washington has welcomed the UK’s foray into the region, privately US officials have said that they would like to see the UK work more closely with its European allies. After years of cuts, the British armed forces are stretched. The Royal Navy was unable to provide enough warships to escort the carrier, which is also carrying more US F-35B warplanes than British ones as the UK does not yet have enough of the jets. The Royal Navy originally dispatched four warships and a submarine but had to turn to the US and Dutch navies, who augmented the carrier strike group with a warship each. En route to Asia, one of the British warships, HMS Diamond, was forced to divert to an Italian shipyard for repairs after encountering engine problems. The vessel was just one of two operational Type 45 destroyers, which were designed to protect the carriers from air attacks. The other four are all undergoing various types of maintenance. “The government made clear its ambition to expand the UK’s influence in the Indo-Pacific region,” said Adam Hug, director of the Foreign Policy Centre, a London-based think-tank. He said that while Britain had strong commercial and political interests there, the government needed “to more clearly articulate where it feels it can add value to the work already being done by allies such as the US and Australia who are based in the region”. The Biden administration has worked hard to increase co-operation with European allies to counter the growing influence of China. Yet while some security experts believe that European navies sailing through the South China Sea sends a strong signal to China about western unity, there is also a debate about the value of having scarce European military assets deployed so far from home. France has significant naval deployments to Asia under way, while Germany has also sent a frigate to the region. Eric Sayers, an Asia security expert at the American Enterprise Institute, said US allies in Europe had much to offer in terms of countering China but Washington had been too quick to publicly welcome their desire to have more of a naval presence in Asia. “It may seem counterintuitive for democracies to shy away from assisting from one another, but the best contribution European countries can make to a global alliance strategy for deterring great powers is to prioritise their finite resources for Russia,” said Sayers, who served as an adviser to US Indo-Pacific command. “Our American partners have concerns that deployments like this will stretch us thin, and they would prefer us to focus closer to home, such as the Mediterranean and Africa,” said a European diplomat. Austin, on his second visit to the region, is due to visit the Philippines and Vietnam later this week. The UK Ministry of Defence did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Source: FT.com)
26 Jul 21. Joint statement by French and British Ministries for Foreign Affairs and Defence (July 2021). Joint statement by the French and British Ministries for Foreign Affairs and for Defence following 2+2 meeting in Paris. High-level Franco-British bilateral consultations were held today in a “2+2” format of Foreign and Defence Ministers, within the unique framework set by the 2010 Lancaster House Treaty and based on our shared security and defence interests. Following the French strategic review and the British Integrated Review, both conducted earlier this year, ministers identified the core areas of our cooperation for the coming years, taking into account the strategic context. They discussed new security challenges, in particular in the cyber domain; our particular responsibilities in the Indo-Pacific region; and the continuation of the cooperation in the fight against terrorism in Africa and the Levant, where our forces are engaged side by side. (Source: https://www.gov.uk/)
25 Jul 21. UK’s Ministry of Defence accused of failing servicewomen Parliamentary report highlights ‘shocking evidence’ of bullying, harassment and sexual assault. Service women face daily challenges due to their gender, according to the report. The Ministry of Defence is failing to protect servicewomen and help them achieve their full potential, a parliamentary report has found, with “shocking evidence” of bullying, harassment and sexual assault within the armed forces. The report, published on Sunday, by the Defence Sub-Committee on Women in the Armed Forces found that of those surveyed, 64 per cent of female veterans and 58 per cent of women serving in the army experienced bullying, discrimination and harassment throughout their careers. “Our inquiry received truly shocking evidence from female service personnel of bullying, sexual harassment, sexual assault and rape they experienced, some of which — even more disturbingly — involved senior officers acting as wrongdoers,” the report’s authors note. The parliamentary committee, which took contributions from 4,106 women in the army, found a lack in confidence in the complaints system. “Too often, complaints are being brushed under the carpet and there is inadequate support,” the report said. The committee also noted serious problems with the handling of the Service Justice System’s handling of criminal sexual offences. Service women faced day-to-day challenges due to their gender, the report said, with accounts of ill-fitting uniform and equipment. Three-quarters of female veterans said that the department was unhelpful in assisting their transition from military to civilian life. Women face barriers to promotion, issues with families and childcare, abuse and inappropriate behaviours, and an over-representation in the Service Complaints system Sarah Atherton, MP and veteran As part of a series of recommendations aimed at improving the culture for servicewomen, the committee has urged the MoD to continue to “trial and fully roll out safer, more appropriate uniform and equipment for female service personnel”. The report called for the creation of a specialised defence authority designed to properly investigate bullying complaints alongside increased funding for the existing complaints ombudsman. The committee has also urged the MoD to hand over responsibility for cases of rape and sexual assault to the civilian court system, amid growing concerns over the handling of sexual assault cases within military courts. According to figures uncovered by Labour earlier this year, between 2015 and 2019, the conviction rate for rape cases heard by courts martial was just 10 per cent. This compares to a 59 per cent conviction rate for rape within civilian courts within the same period. “It cannot be right that conviction rates in military courts are four to six times lower than in civilian courts,” said Sarah Atherton, Conservative MP and chair of the subcommittee on Women in the Armed Forces. Atherton, who is a veteran, said that while the military had “come a long way”, more reforms were needed, with women facing “barriers to promotion, issues with families and childcare, abuse and inappropriate behaviours, and an over-representation in the Service Complaints system”. This sentiment was echoed by chair of the defence select committee, Tobias Ellwood who described the issue of sexual assault within the military as pressing and warned that more needed to be done to protect and provide for servicewomen and female veterans, who in many instances had been let down by the MoD. “Our subcommittee has conducted in-depth research, over several months, on the issue of sexual assault and rape, and has an accurate and honest understanding of the problems women face”, he said. “This is not a race to the bottom or a matter of saving face. We should place the issue itself at the heart of our work.” (Source: FT.com)
————————————————————————-
Founded in 1987, Exensor Technology is a world leading supplier of Networked Unattended Ground Sensor (UGS) Systems providing tailored sensor solutions to customers all over the world. From our Headquarters in Lund Sweden, our centre of expertise in Network Communications at Communications Research Lab in Kalmar Sweden and our Production site outside of Basingstoke UK, we design, develop and produce latest state of the art rugged UGS solutions at the highest quality to meet the most stringent demands of our customers. Our systems are in operation and used in a wide number of Military as well as Home land Security applications worldwide. The modular nature of the system ensures any external sensor can be integrated, providing the user with a fully meshed “silent” network capable of self-healing. Exensor Technology will continue to lead the field in UGS technology, provide our customers with excellent customer service and a bespoke package able to meet every need. A CNIM Group Company
————————————————————————-