Evidence-based policy-making depends on the quality of the evidence

IP-watch.org gives a trailer for an interesting-sounding survey which is available only to their subscribers, of which I am not one:

Preliminary findings of a survey aimed at mapping the current prevailing ideas on intellectual property confirmed recognised trends that academics and intergovernmental IP professionals look more favourably on weaker IP protection, and traditional North-South differences toward IP rights are becoming less clear cut. It also found that policymakers tend to rely heavily on statistics from industry to help them with their decisions, whether reliable or not.

With evidence-based policy-making being so fashionable since the Hargreaves Review, this seems very timely: survey evidence of preconceptions and prejudices, combined with a reliance on what those with the biggest axes to grind say is best. This is how we got our present law on industrial designs - it has been going on that long.