News
Thursday 15 May 2025
Government copyright decision upholds exhaustion of rights
Publishers Association - News
Today, the government has announced that the temporary intellectual property rights exhaustion regime, which was introduced post-Brexit, will be made permanent. This is the outcome long called for by the Publishers Association and key partners across the books industry.
Following our departure from the EU, the government consulted on a change to the IP framework which could have had wide-ranging impacts for UK authors, publishers and the wider book sector – as well as British business more broadly. This was to something called the UK’s ‘exhaustion of rights’ regime, which sets the rules for parallel imports of IP-protected goods into the UK. The existing exhaustion regime prevents the unauthorised importing of international (non-EEA) copies of books into the UK, undercutting the domestic market; and allows UK authors and publishers to price appropriately for international markets. This copyright protection is crucial for UK authors and publishers selling works abroad.
If the IPO had decided to remove the ‘copyright border’ for parallel imports into the UK, in what is termed an ‘international exhaustion’ regime, authors and publishers would not be able to prevent copies of their books from around the world being sold in the UK. This would erode domestic sales, where the majority of UK author income comes from.
The Publishers Association ran the Save Our Books campaign, making the case for the exhaustion regime to be upheld, with partners from across the books industry – the Association of Authors’ Agents, Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society and Society of Authors, as well as a number of supporting organisations including Publishers Licensing Services. Today's decision is a strong moment for the publishing sector, as any potential changes to the current exhaustion of rights regime would have proved an existential threat to the industry. Our comment on the decision was covered in The Bookseller today.
Dan Conway, CEO of the Publishers Association said:
“We are thrilled that the government has made the right choice to maintain the UK’s gold standard copyright regime in relation to exhaustion of rights. The strength of our Intellectual Property laws directly underpin the success of the publishing industry and the global competitiveness of our world-leading creative industries. We have campaigned hard on this important issue with our Save Our Books campaign partners over the past few years and we are very grateful that ministers have listened to authors, readers and the books industry on this important topic.”
More News
Wednesday 19th January 2023: Save Our Books campaign partners’ responses to the government’s decision to maintain current copyright laws
Tuesday 18th January 2022: Government decides not to change copyright exhaustion laws
Tuesday 9th November 2021: Books are source of great pride for UK
Monday 7th June 2021: Save Our Books campaign launches as IPO opens consultation
Sunday 1st August 2021: Thousands of authors and illustrators urge government to ‘Save Our Books’ in open letter
Sunday 29th August 2021: UK’s publishing industry to be decimated if government changes copyright laws