9 November 2017, 6 pm
My last public appearance in London, before I head back to what Mr Davies generously refers to as Oblivion, is at an IP Out event. Two speakers tell us about family law for people who do not want to do families the Proper Way. Apparently UK law has yet to get its head around unconventional parenting practices; it continues to apply its tried and tested legislative codes, based on the premise that a woman gets appended to a husband who thenceforth controls both his wife and his offspring. Luckily, if this proves too awkward, most authorities are prepared to take a more flexible approach, and thus, apparently, can LGBT+ people have families too, even in the UK. The law is more accommodating in the US, apparently, but only if you are rich. As a feminist, I am heartened by any kind of progress in this area. The sooner people accept that not all parents are women, and indeed that not all women are parents, the sooner we can stop deducting 30% from women’s salaries as insurance against nappy-related absences. I commend the organisers for their brave choice of topic. We are in the glitzy London offices of a major international law firm. We are drinking their wine and eating their high-class canapés. But there has been not one mention of intellectual property law. The world is changing.
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