Huddersfield Health Innovation Partnership

Author Rlwjones Licence CC BY-SA 4.0 Source Wikimedia Commons

Jane Lambert

The Huddersfield Health Innovation Partnership is a collaboration between the University of Huddersfield, 3M Buckley Innovation Centre, Business Kirklees, the NHS and other local and regional health and wellbeing bodies.  It was formed to offer businesses in the healthcare and well-being sectors:

• business support
• events and workshops
• access to university and NHS expertise
• office and lab space
• funding, and
• facilities for product development.

The University's National Health Innovation Campus is a 7-acre site, with planning permission for up to 7 buildings.  It will include a health and well-being academy, research facilities for skin integrity and infection prevention, psychological therapies, addiction and falls prevention. specialist clinical teaching facilities and space and equipment for teaching members of the public

One of the first events to be offered by the Partnership is AI Innovation in Healthcare which will take place between 09:30 and 15:30 at the John Smith Stadium.  One of the topics to be discussed at that event will be AI in pharmaceutical development.  It is a topic in which I have an obvious professional interest and I have already signed up for it.

The new healthcare and wellbeing businesses that will occupy office and lab space on campus will doubtless require the best possible advice and assistance on intellectual property and healthcare law.  I will continue the initial advice and signposting clinics that I have run for the last 20 years.   In those clinics, I advise startups and other small and medium enterprises pro bono on topics in which I have expertise or refer them to experts in other professions for such services as patent, trade mark or design applications, product design or prototyping, taxation and so on.  As I retain virtual office facilities at the Huddersfield Media Centre on N Northumberland Street I am well placed to promote and assist the Huddersfield Health Innovation Partnership.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article may call me on 07966 373922 during office hours or send me a message through my contact page,

Speaking to Entrepreneurs in Barnsley

IP for Start-ups and other Small and Medium Enterprises from Jane Lambert

On Monday I delivered the above presentation at Barnsley's splendid new library at The Lightbox. The library is one of many facilities at a new shopping and entertainment complex known as The Glassworks.  I gave my talk in the meeting room that appears below.  The gist of my presentation can be gleaned from my slides.

Whenever I give a talk like this I stress the difference between intellectual property which is the collective name for a bundle of laws and the brands, designs, technology and creative works that those laws protect, namely intellectual assets. Too often the term intellectual property is used interchangeably for the legal protection and the subject of that protection, namely the inventions, books or distinctive signs.  I also stress that there are nearly always alternative ways of protecting an asset. For instance, an inventor can keep his invention under wraps until he is ready to exploit it (and even longer if it cannot easily be reverse-engineered) or he can disclose it to the world in exchange for a patent.  There are advantages and disadvantages of patent and trade secret protection.

I discuss the rights that require registration such as patents, trade marks, registered designs and plant breeders' rights and those that come into being automatically such as copyright, design right, rights in performances and the common right actions of breach of confidence and passing off.  As a lot of businesspeople have never heard of patent or trade mark agents or are not quite sure what they do, I explained the roles of each of the main IP professions, that is to say, patent and trade mark attorneys and specialist solicitors and counsel, how they are regulated and where they can be identified and instructed.

I continued my talk with a discussion of assignments, licensing and franchising.  I explained the difference between exclusive, sole and non-exclusive licences.  I spoke about IP strategy and suggested a simple one for a new business with limited funds.

I also mentioned enforcement. I told them that an intellectual property right can be regarded as a right to bring a lawsuit and that it is ultimately useless if it cannot be enforced.  That will cost money and I considered IP insurance and other funding mechanisms. I discussed some options such as the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court and its small claims track and some of the alternatives to litigation such as proceedings before hearing officers in the IPO, mediation, examiners' opinions on the validity and infringement of patents and the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy and Nominet's Dispute Resolution Service.

Finally, I mentioned my monthly pro bono clinics at the Business Village (formerly Barnsley Business and  Innovation Centre) at Wilthorpe on the second Tuesday of every month (see IP Yorkshire Clinics 17 Aug 2018).  I also recommended the services provided by the Business and IP Centres at Sheffield and Leeds Central Libraries.

I was asked a number of questions such as the significance of the © and ® signs and whether they were necessary for the subsistence of copyright or a registered trade mark. I was also asked about the "TM" sign and I quipped that the former librarian at Manchester Central Library had said that the sign stood for "totally meaningless". I said I wouldn't go quite that far and that it might warn of an intention to sue for passing off.  My audience was quite surprised to learn some statistics such as the number of European Patents that are sought from this country in comparison with other large industrial countries and the massive number of patent applications from China, Japan and South Korea. We had a very lively Q & A which might have continued for some time had the library staff not enquired whether we had homes to go to.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article should call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact page.

Author Jane Kamnert © 2018 Jane Elizabeth Kambert

Sheffield IP Clinics

Sheffield Central Library

Author Chemical Engineer
Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International
Source Wikipedia, Sheffield Central Library

Jane Lambert

For over 11 years I have held an IP clinic in Barnsley on the second Tuesday of every month (see IP Yorkshire Clinics 17 Aug 2018).  I have now been invited by the Sheffield Business and IP Centre to hold a similar clinic at Sheffield Central Library in Surrey Street.

My first clinic will take place on Wednesday 10 April 2019 between 14:00 and 16:00.   It will be very much on the same lines as the Barnsley clinic. Up to 4 free consultations of 30 minutes each will be available at each session.

My clinics will supplement the CIPA's existing ones.  As I wrote in Whom you gonna call? IP Professionals and what they do 2 April 2019 NIPC Wales, each of the intellectual property professions has its strengths. My expertise lies in IP strategy. dispute avoidance and dispute resolution and commercialization and I shall focus on those matters.

Anyone wishing to book a slot should call Sarah Hogan, the Library and Information Officer, on 0114 273 4852 or email her on Sarah.Hogan@sheffield.gov.uk.  Anyone wishing to discuss this article may call me on 020 7404 55252 or send me a message through my contact form.

The Sheffield Devolution Agreement should mean more Business Support - but will it be the Right Kind?

Sheffield Town Hall

Photo Wikipedia

In his Autumn statement the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced investments of up to £7 billion to transform the great cities of the North of England into an economic powerhouse.  At paragraph 1.187 of his statement he wrote:

"Studies have shown that innovators and entrepreneurs are attracted to work in creative and cultural areas, which offer a high quality of life. Strong civic leadership is instrumental in enabling this. In addition, research by the OECD shows that cities around the world with fragmented governance structures have lower levels of productivity than those that do not."

 The Chancellor referred to HM government's devolution agreement with Greater Manchester Combined Authority agreement on 3 Nov 2014 in his statement and added that other city regions had come up with similar proposals.  One of the first of those city regions is Sheffield City Region which announced a devolution deal with with the government of 12 Dec 2014.

Details of the deal appear on the Sheffield City Council website. Under the deal a range of powers will be transferred to the Sheffield City Region Combined Authority and the Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership in relation to skills and training, employment, business support, transport, housing and future devolution.  The business support programme promises the following:

• "Sheffield City Region will align national and local business support through the LEP’s growth hub, so that businesses get a joined up service which meets their needs. The Government will work with SCR to develop a devolved approach to the delivery of business support from 2017 onwards, subject to the outcome of future spending reviews
• UKTI will become principle partner with Sheffield City Region’s Export Centre of Expertise and work closely with the LEP to encourage more businesses to export.
• Government and Sheffield City Region will work towards a solution that will allow the Yorkshire JEREMIE to continue on an interim basis."

Having set up and supported the Sheffield inventors Group and operated IP clinics in Barnsley and Rotherham over the last 10 years, I welcome the creation of a business growth hub in the city region. 

The announcement promises "a comprehensive suite of services that will be tailored to the bespoke needs of businesses."  One of those needs is independent expert advice on IP strategy, that is to say advice on the intellectual property rights that are needed to achieve a business's objectives. There are plenty of business advisers in South Yorkshire but few of them understand how to to use the bundle of laws that protect investment in branding, design, technology or creative works that we call "intellectual property". Similarly, there are patent and trade mark attorneys who can prosecute patent, trade mark and registered design applications but few of them can advise on the business needs of their clients,

I will continue to provide pro bono advice on IP strategy at the Barnsley Business Innovation Centre on the second Tuesday of the month between 10 and 12 and will carry on supporting the Sheffield Inventors. Should anyone wish to discuss this article, IP strategy, business support or the devolution agreement, call me on 01484 599090 during office hours or message me through my contact form. I might not be too pleased to be mithered on 25 Dec but I am available to business owners and their professional advisers at all other times. 

Merry Chrsitmas!