Peer appointed as IP Minister
Viscount Camrose has been announced as the new Minister for AI and Intellectual Property following the recent government reshuffle.
The newly created role sees ministerial responsibility for intellectual property (IP) shift into a more focused portfolio. Most recently the IP responsibility was part of the science and innovation brief.
The announcement also confirms that, following the disbanding of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), IP and the UK Intellectual Property Office will sit within the newly created Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT).
The new brief will see Viscount Camrose have responsibility for all DSIT business in the House of Lords, as well as artificial intelligence, intellectual property and cyber - a much narrower brief than previous incumbents.
Viscount Camrose, whose full name is Jonathan William Berry, is a Conservative peer. He was given a hereditary seat in the House of Lords in 2022 following the retirement of Lord Rotherwick last year.
He inherited the title of Viscount following the death of his father Adrian Michael Berry in 2016. The Berry family owned The Daily Telegraph for some 60 years.
Viscount Camrose is one of 42 Conservative hereditary peers which sit in the House of Lords among a total of 92 hereditary peers.
When a Conservative hereditary peer dies or resigns the remaining Conservative peers elect a successor from a list of eligible candidates with hereditary titles. Viscount Camrose received a total of 20 votes and was elected in the first round of voting.
The previous minister with responsibility for IP, George Freeman, has taken up the role of Minister for Science, Research and Innovation within DSIT and will oversee science, innovation and space in a wide portfolio.
CITMA President Rachel Wilkinson-Duffy said: “I would like to welcome Viscount Camrose to this important role. I look forward to discussing how intellectual property can help to grow the UK’s economy and the ways that our world-class IP system needs protecting. There are pressing issues for UK innovators, who deserve a world-class IP environment that protects their ideas – we need to upgrade our system in order to ensure that it works in the interests of our great British businesses.
“There is no time to waste - we look forward to working with Viscount Camrose straight away to achieve this.”
Recent ministers with responsibility for IP:
- George Freeman MP 2022-2023
- Dean Russell MP 2022
- George Freeman MP 2021-2022
- Amanda Solloway MP 2020-2021
- Chris Skidmore MP 2019-2020
- Lord Johnson of Marylebone (Jo Johnson) 2019
- Chris Skidmore MP 2018-2019
- Sam Gyimah 2018
- Lord Johnson of Marylebone (Jo Johnson) 2016-2018
- Baroness Neville-Rolfe 2014-2016
- Viscount Younger of Leckie 2013-2014
- Lord Marland 2012- 2013
- Baroness Wilcox 2010-2012