Ownership of postcodes

Paul:
Are you aware of any discussions about who should own the post code,etc? As the market deregulates, is it valid for Royal Mail to manage the post codes from its operation in Portsmouth? This came up the other day at aclient meeting that Geoff Lambert and I attended and I would just be interested to know whether you have ever come across the subject before.
Regards, Paul

Ians response:
Paul
I am aware that Royal Mail has litigated unsuccessfully about ownership of the IP in postcodes.
Royal Mail is reviewing the licensing agreements for its Postal Address File (PAF). Industry insiders warn that it could see the company own all data which has been validated against the file. The proposals follow Royal Mail's failed court case against 192.com for using correct names and addresses in its directory products after validating its information against PAF. Source: Precision Marketing
IP issues have plenty of economic implications but legal aspects dominate.
There is an issue with "essential facilities" (I think it's
>called that)which says that if an organisation has an essential facility
>without which there can be no competition, the organisation can be compelled to license it to competitors.
Ian

from Geoff
nyone who enters the postal marekt will need to be able to
>sensibly sort
> > mail to any Uk location and integrate with the deliverer of last
>resort
> > (RM). The postcode is the unique system which is well
>established in the
> > Uk that sorts mail. It is effective and universal and everyone
>wants to
> >use
> > it. indeed many outside the RM also use it.
> >
> > So far RM have made the information avaialable to those who need
>it, but
> > often only in formats that they want to produce the data in.
>everything
> >in
> > postcodes is driven by operational needs in RM. Many code changes
>take
> > place because RM want to change but requests from other industries
>are
> > rarely accepted. There could be an argument that the postcode
>system
> >should
> > become independent of RM an operate for the whole postal industry
>(and
> >other
> > industries) not just RM. This could be achieved if PAF and the
>creation
> >of
> > new postcodes was organised independently. I always thought
>postcomm
> >would
> > be supportive of such a move though i doubt RM will want to
>release
> > postcodes from their control.
> >
geoff

from Ian:
>RM has every right to require mail presented to it by third parties at
>any
> >point in the chain to conform to RM's prevailing post codes in order to
> >gain work-sharing discounts. In my view the only case against RM would
>be
> >if it deliberately applied its postal coding rules in order to discourage
> >third parties from accessing RM's system, thus preventing competition.
> >
> >Provided that RM treats postcodes purely as an operational tool to
>deliver
> >mail and not a tool to suppress competition, I can see no economic case
>for
> >handing control of the postcodes to some third party, least of all
> >Postcomm.
> >
> >Ian

from David
The issue resolves on who owns postcodes and in particular the postcode
>address files (PAF and PIF), which drive operational uses. I should explain
>PIF is the PAF with delivery point suffix (DPS) attached. The direct
>marketing industry have long argued and continue to argue that the
>ownership of PAF and PIF does not rest with Royal Mail. PAF and PIF
>development took place whil Royal Mail was a state owned monopoly and as
>such the ownership sits with the state, namely HMG.
>Royal Mail should be licensed to run PAF and PIF, with competitors and
>mailers given low cost access, for operational and development use.
>The postcode and DPS should be a common generic currency used by all
>operators, to ensure it does not become a barrier to competition. Royal
>Mail can stipulate how mail is presented to it as long as it is to minimise
>cost and maximise operational efficiency. There is also a 2 way aspect
>here, for workshare to work effectively it has to be in the operators and
>mailers or mailing house best interests.
>The aspect of Royal Mail stipulated mail presentation through the access
>model is fraught with problems. If Royal Mail abide to the spirit of thier
>downstream access user guide, then competition will prosper, if they stick
>to the letter of the guide, we are in for a real mess!!
>
>Hope this helps.
>
>Regards
>
>David