FabLabs for Yokshire: Progress Report

On 9 Nov 2011 I reported that plans were in hand for a FabLab in Keighley (see "A FabLab for Keighley"). The consortium behind the project has just published a website at  http://www.fablabairedale.org so we now know a little more about it.

According to the "About Us" page:

"Fab Lab is the first stage of an ambitious project to create a Centre of Manufacturing Excellence within Airedale serving Bradford District and the surrounding parts of the Leeds City Region. Fab Lab Airedale is a collaborative venture between the Airedale Partnership, Bradford Council and Leeds City College, with support from The Manufacturing Institute. The Fab Lab Airedale will operate as a not for profit company limited by guarantee. Any profits generated through the running of the Fab Lab will be reinvested in the aims of the project which are to promote innovation and excellence within the local manufacturing and related sectors."

We also know that the FabLab will be located at Dalton Mills. I drove past the site on Saturday and was very impressed.

We still don't know when the Airedale FabLab will open. Early 2012 according to the website.   I called the number on the website this morning and was put through to a lady at the city council.  She could tell me nothing more than that it would be soon.

The next FabLab in Yorkshire is likely to be in Sheffield. A meeting took place in Sheffield in July 2009 at which Eddie Kirby of the Manufacturing Institute announced plans for a chain of FabLabs around the UK and this was confirmed by Professor Gerschenfeld himself when he was interviewed on BBC Radio on 14 Nov 2011. There was a vigorous debate on a FabLab for South Yorkshire in the Sheffield City Region Linkedin group before Christmas.  

Elsewhere in the country there appear to be plans for FabLabs in Brighton and Troon. All these projects are supported by a group of enthusiasts known as "FabLabsUK" who have set up a website and Meetup group.

As always, If anybody has any questions or comments, he or she can contact me through my contact form, Facebook, Linkedin, Xing or twitter or call me on 0113 320 3232 .

MAD Bradford

Not riots! Not the decaying Odeon. Not the massive building site in the city centre. But Media and Digital Bradford which held its inaugural meeting at Gumption Centres on 12 Jan 2012.  I was there as were folk from the arts, the Council, the media, the Media Museum, the University and more geeks tham you can shake a USB stick at.

Before it closed last year Bmedia had done a lot of good things for the media and digital industries in Bradford:
:

• the alternate third Thursday meetings with a guest speaker and pizza;
• Bradford OpenCoffee in Shipley;
• a very good Bar Camp in Nov 2009;
• my regular intellectual property clinic at Gumption every third Thursday; 
• the courses and seminars that it arranged;
• the information on bids and tenders that it circulated; and
• its contacts with other groups in the city such as FABRIC and FabLab..

The end of Bmedia was a bit of a blow for Bradford.

MAD Bradford is a very different sort of grouping. Although the proposed format for regular monthly meetings and networking is very similar it is much less structured. Before the meeting we were welcomed with a pot of vegetable chili prepared by Mrs. David Robertson Brown (for which many thanks) and a voucher for a free cup of tea or coffee. 

The meeting followed the BarCamp formula. Members of the audience were invited to propose topics for discussion. These ranged from the local authority's super-fast broadband "Connected Cities" bid presented by Dave Melling, rural programmes co-ordinator of Bradford MDC, the image of Bradford, what the University can do for us and we for the University, html5 and even the future of the internet. Matt Fielding divided us into three groups to discuss those topics and sent us away to different parts of the building. These groups quickly coalesced into two which I would loosely describe as the developers and the creatives.   I tagged on to the "creatives" group in the reception area which discussed a number of interesting proposals for future activities.

These ideas are likely to be developed further in the "MAD Bradford" Linkedin group which has recently been formed. 

One thing is for certain. Any new product created by members of the group will require design right, registered design or patent protection, Every new brand will require legal protection whether under the law of passing off or the registration of a trade mark. There will be demand for advice and representation on IP and technology law which members of IP Yorkshire will continue to supply.

Biddleston to talk to Leeds Inventors Group

Inventor, product developer and former school master John Biddleston will talk to Leeds Inventors Group this month. His presentation to the Sheffield club was very well received indeed.   For more information about this presentation, see the article in my Inventors Club blog.

John is an excellent speaker so you are in for a treat.  The talk will take place on 18 Jan 2012 at 18:00 at Central Library, Calverley Street, Leeds, LS1 3AB. For further information call Ged Doonan or Stef Stephenson on  0113 247 8266 or  email piu@leeds.gov.uk.

Talk to Halifax Law Society: Trade Marks and Passing Off

I have been asked to talk about trade marks, passing off, geographical indications and the legal protection of brands generally to Halifax Law Society at the White Swan Hotel in Halifax on Tuesday, 20 March 2012 between 13:30 and 15:30.


My talk will cover the following topics:

• Definitions: what is a brand and what is a trade mark;
• Common law protection of brands;
• Trade mark registration;
• TRIPS, Paris and Madrid;
• Trade mark directives;
• Trade Marks Act 1994;
• Community trade marks;
• Registration in the Trade Mark Registry and at OHIM;
• Objecting to a registration: third party observations, opposition, invalidity and revocation;
• Infringement proceedings in the Chancery Division and the Patents County Court;
• Passing off;
• Geographical Indications;
• Domain names; and
• Company Names Tribunal.

For further information, my contact at Halifax Law Society is Carol Stevenson of Finn Gledhill on 01422 330000 or enquiries@finngledhill.co.uk but the Halifax Law Society blog also invites enquiries to David Swarbrick (@dslippy) at dwarb@gmail.com on 0795 457 9992. I am also happy to be contacted on  0113 320 3232 or through my contact form and I shall pass on any enquiries to Carol or David. 

Finally, I wish you all a happy New Year.

Ballet and Intellectual Property - my Excuse for reviewing "Beauty and the Beast"

One of my passions is ballet. In a funny sort of way I owe my career in intellectual property to ballet because I discovered Lincoln's Inn while looking for free parking within walking distance of the Royal Opera House one matinee.

There are some connections between intellectual property and ballet which I discussed in some detail in "Cracking Nuts - Copyright in Choreography". That article was my excuse to review David Nixon's "Nutcracker" in my IP North West blog on 24 Nov 2011. As Yorkshire folk don't like to read stuff that's been served up before I have to think of something new now. Having squeezed the Massine v de Basil lemon dry in my other article I've decided to review Northern Ballet's "Beauty and the Beast" which I saw at The Grand Theatre in Leeds last night. I shall also mention some of the company's services to Yorkshire business as well as some of things that Yorkshire business can do for Northern Ballet.

Beauty and the Beast is not an easy story to choreograph. Scottish Ballet had a go with Thea Musgrave's score many years ago. I reviewed for "Aien" (St Andrews University student newspaper) when it was premiered at The King's Theatre in Edinburgh in 1969. Ballet Cymru also seems to have had a version in its repertoire. Another link with IP, incidentally, since Ballet Cymru is based in Newport, the same town as the Intellectual Property Office. And, of course, there is the Birmingham Royal Ballet's version. But none of those versions has ever achieved the popularity of works like Coppelia, Giselle, Nutcracker, Sleeping Beauty or Swan Lake. Will David Nixon's version do any better? The answer is that I am just not sure.

Beauty and the Beast has an awkward story line with two sets of main characters:

• Prince Orian who gets turned into a wild beast; and
• a King Lear type figure with three daughters (one of whom is "Beauty") who are turned out of their house by the bailiffs as a result of the girls' extravagance and end up in an old bus in a forest where the old man gets mugged by the beast.

There are also strong roles for good and wicked fairies and the beast's steward. There's also a mishmash of music from Bizet, Poulenc and Saint-Saëns. No wonder my companion (a considerable artist in her own field) and I asked ourselves what was going on in the interval.

Beauty and the Beast is also a very big ballet demanding a very big stage for Duncan Hayler's set. The Grand is an intimate theatre not ideally suited for ballet and its stage did not do it justice.

As for Nixon's choreography the first two acts reminded me of early McMillan - works like Anastasia which are not performed very often nowadays for a reason. But the last Act reminded me of Balanchine and I think it was that Act which saved the ballet. The pas de deux between Beauty - danced exquisitely by Martha Leebolt - and the beast showed just what the choreographer can do. Also impressive were Victoria Sibson and Hannah Bateman who danced the fairies, Hironeo Takahashi, the beast's servant and the coryphées, Michela Paolacci, Ayana Kanda, Christie Duncan and Isabella Gasparini who were four sprites. The last Act of the ballet could well stand as a work in its own right. I hope to see that Act many times again but I would happily skip the first two acts with its old bus and bailiffs.

Before I turn to Northern Ballet's business services and how to sponsor a dancer, I should mention I-Candy, a gorgeous confiserie, patisserie and ice cream parlour a few doors down and on the same side of the road. My friend had one of their waffles with hot white chocolate and I had some chocolate cheesecake thereby undoing all the good work in the gym a few hours earlier. Well it is Christmas.

Now back to business. Northern Ballet's building can be hired for conferences, exhibitions and even a Girl Geek dinner. Are you listening Imran? You'd have a sell out. Here's a video about the place.


Businesses can also sponsor the company as a whole or indeed individual dancers. You will need a good IP lawyer for that. I shall certainly sponsor a dancer just as soon as I can. I hope that some of my readers - especially my patent and trade mark agent clients - will do the same.

Happy New Year folks.

Bradford Rising Stars: a local opportunity to implement Hargreaves

One of the recommendations of Prof. Ian Hargreaves in his review of intellectual property and growth published earlier in the year was for the IPO to draw up plans to improve accessibility of the IP system to smaller companies who will benefit from it. He added that this should involve access to lower cost providers of integrated IP legal and commercial advice.

I discussed this recommendation at some length in my article "Does Hargreaves say anything new?" (24 June 2011):

"The review recognized that SME want is an integrated source of advice which combines commercial and technical insight with legal expertise, helping them to commercialize, as well as protect, their IP. It also found that such advice is not always available from patent agents. That was just the sort of service that many – though, alas, by no means all - Business Link advisers used to provide. Hargreaves called upon the IPO to “draw up plans to improve accessibility of the IP system to smaller companies who will benefit from it”. The review added that “this should involve access to lower cost providers of integrated IP legal and commercial advice.” Again, these are worthy aspirations but there is a limit to what the IPO can do. The 13 PATlib libraries may be a better platform. Many such as Leeds, Sheffield and, of course, the British Library run IP clinics and inventors’ clubs. They also hold considerable collections of marketing and general business as well as legal materials which they make available to the general public. Unfortunately, our second city no longer offers the services of a specialist patent librarian and Liverpool library is closed for refurbishment."

The day before the IPO announced a package of measures to implement that recommendation I was at Bradford Chamber of Commerce meeting the Rising Stars team. The Rising Stars programme is a project funded by the European Regional Development Fund and Bradford City Council and administered by the Chamber to "help a select group of Bradford businesses to push ahead and grow." This help includes "a free, dedicated and personal advice service to entrepreneurs and established businesses within the Bradford area."

I was invited to meet the team because several had clients with intellectual property issues who had difficulty in obtaining affordable advice from patent and trade mark agents and reliable advice from anybody else. As Professor Hargreaves recognized at paragraph 9.9 of his review

"At present, long established IP legal advisors (for example, patent attorneys) seldom offer expertise on the commercial aspects of IP. Conversely, IP advisors with a business focus lack the detailed legal knowledge to assist SMEs in obtaining IPRs."

I had a very good discussion with the advisers. After explaining the difference between intellectual assets and intellectual property and the different types of legal protection that were available for brands, designs, technology and creative works, I outlined the services that were available for artists, designers and inventors and entrepreneurs and investors. I told them that these services were listed nationally and regionally on my Inventors Club website and updated regularly in my Inventors Club blog. I mentioned some of the services that I offer nationally through my NIPC Clinics and locally through my Third Thursday clinics at Gumption.

In Q & A I was asked precisely what I did and how my services differed from "pay-tent" attorneys and solicitors. After explaining as patiently as I could that the word for the monopoly of a new invention is pronounced "pat - tent" ("pat" as in grass at least as pronounced locally) and that "pay-tent" refers to the type of leather used for court shoes, I described the services offered by each of those professions. I explained how the relationship between patent and trade mark attorneys, solicitors and the patent bar was analogous to the relationship between general practitioners and consultant physicians and surgeons in medicine.

In answer to a question from Peter Briggs, who was determined to put this airy, fairy, uppity lady barrister in her place, as to when exactly he should send a client to me, I replied that I was a member of a referral profession and that in an ideal world clients should come to me through patent agents and solicitors. However, I added, I had noted that this was far from a perfect world and that by the time clients came to me it was often too late to help them. Sometimes they had spent all their money on applications for patents that they could not afford to renew let alone enforce or they had been to solicitors or other professional advisers on a learning curve who had tried to issue patent infringement claims in the local district registry or county court. That was why I had set up the clinics and inventors clubs to make sure that as many members of our local business community as possible get as much advice as possible at as early a stage as possible.

Mr. Briggs asked whether filling in the on-line form would oblige inventors to disclose their inventions. "No it wouldn't" I assured him. "It would simply enable me to find the best sort of help for them." I had a panel of experts with whom I had worked in the past and whom I could trust to do a good job at a reasonable rate:

• patent agents such as Michael Harrison, Alex Tomkinson and Tom Hutchinson;
• trade mark agents like Carin Burchill, Paul Dyson and Phil Cooper;
• US IP attorneys like Toni Tease and Doug Isenberg;
• specialist solicitors like Kate Reid and James Love;
• product design consultants like Richard Hall, John Biddleston and Alex Smith;
• brand consultants like Nick Burton

and all sorts of other specialists whose expertise runs from China to ceramics. "Well won't those folk charge" asked Mr. Briggs. "Only after they have identified the problem, decided whether they can help the client and quoted for the job" I replied.

The time at Bradford passed very quickly and, before we knew it, it was up. In an email to Carolyn Coleman who chaired the meeting I mentioned some of the other resources that I have not mentioned in this post such as my presentations on Slideshare, articles on J D Supra, blog on IP developments in the Gulf and, of course, my website.

Should anyone want to discuss this post or IP rights in general he or she should call me on 0113 320 3232 or use my contact form.

Latest IP Yorkshire Newsletter

The latest IP Yorkshire newsletter is out with articles on

• the LEP Summit in Leeds on 9 Sept 2011
• FabLabs for Yorkshire
• injunctions against ISPs
• IP law in the Gulf
• Gumption
• guidance for web designers
• inventors, and
• IP dispute resolution.

Earlier issues of the newsletter are archived. You can download them by clicking the links to the sidebar.