My heart sinks each time a body rushes to tell us that it is setting up a committee to show how refurbishment or anything else should be done, like Kate Symons of BRE does in her column (28 March, page 41).

Committees are the antithesis of what is required for innovation. Innovation is done by individuals, who work with partners and organisations. The BRE’s agenda is to pick up unprotected ideas and put them in the public domain. Nothing wrong with that, except it should not be dressed up as best practice.

There is an institutionalised way of putting intellectual property into the public domain and those individuals who initiate innovation should make best use of legal protection on their intellectual property. Once you have done that, use the BRE for promotion – if it lets you.

Barrie Moore

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