Thank you.
I was on the steering committee that produced the OECD's recent study on knowledge networks, among other things. I should point out that while knowledge networks are part of an IP system, they're just part of it. That was very much the view of the steering committee and the OECD.
I don't think I disagree with anything the professor is saying about the importance of new routes and methods for exploiting intellectual property rights. But I differ in that I don't think if one person wants to choose a particular route—whether it's an open-source route or otherwise, where you're making information available freely, or for whatever purpose—it should detract from protecting, advancing, and enforcing the more traditional systems that still work and are still very necessary for the advancement of innovation.
The issue of collaboration is an important one, because it has been brought up as an example of something that can only really work in a sort of more open environment. In fact, the studies seem to have found—at least the ones that were made available to our committee at the OECD—that patents and a clear knowledge of who owns what actually encourages just as much collaboration as anything else.
I would urge the committee that while what the professor is suggesting is important and an interesting way of exploiting intellectual property rights and innovation, it's just one way. It doesn't mean we shouldn't take advantage of the many recommendations that have been made to this point by the past committee and many others.
There is a gap from 2007 to 2012, but I think that report is still fresh and has been built on by others since then.