The Publishers Association and its #SaveOurBooks partners (Association of Authors’ Agents, Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society and Society of Authors) have written to the new DCMS and BEIS Secretaries of State urging them to continue the current IP exhaustion regime, which underpins the UK’s £6.7 billion publishing sector.

Last year, the Intellectual Property Office (IPO) consulted on changes to the UK’s IP exhaustion regime, including considering a move to an “international exhaustion regime”. The #SaveOurBooks campaign brought together a broad coalition of readers, authors, publishers, and other creative industries in strong support of retaining the UK’s current regime.

The Publishers Association says that it was delighted when the Government concluded that the current well-functioning regime would be retained. However, the IPO has since announced its intention to make a final decision on IP exhaustion by March 2023.

The Publishers Association says that a move to an international exhaustion regime would “harm the UK economy, disincentivise UK exports, and be detrimental to British readers”. To read the Publishers Association’s press release in full and for a link to the full letter to the Government, click here.