Celebrating Barnsley's Intellectual Property on World IP Day

Joseph Bramah

 

Jane Lambert

World Intellectual Property Day is a celebration of creativity, enterprise and innovation.  Over the years Barnsley folk have demonstrated those qualities in abundance.  As for creativity, the composer John Arthur Casken, the playwright John Arden and the poet Ian McMillan came from Barnsley.  So, too, did the entrepreneur Rita Britton whose conversation I discussed in Meeting Rita Britton, a Living Legend on 9 April 2024.  But perhaps the Barnsley scion who has had the biggest impact on the world is the inventor, Joseph Bramah because he invented a device that enables large concentrations of humans to live healthily in close proximity to each other 

That device was the water closet which was Bramah's first and most famous invention but it was not his only one.   He developed a particularly secure kind of lock for which he received a patent in 1784. On the strength of that invention, he set up the Bramah Locks Company which continues to this day.  He also invented a hydraulic press the drawings of which are on Espacenet under the title "Obtaining and Applying Motive Power".  In his lifetime he received 18 patents for inventions that ranged from fire trucks to beer engines.   Wetherspoon has a pub called The Joseph Bramah at 15 Market Hill in Barnsley town centre.

Over the 20 years or so that I have been running a pro bono IP clinic at The Business Village I have seen many budding entrepreneurs and inventors.   Some I have referred to Sheffield Central Library for a patent search,  Others I have referred to product design consultants.   I have introduced several to local patent or trade mark attorneys.  On a few occasions I have helped businesses settle potentially ruinous disputes on advantageous terms at the earliest possible stage.

Barnsley's Library @ The Lightbox where I gave a presentation to local entrepreneurs entitled IP for Startups and Other SMEs in 2019. The Lightbox is part of the Business and IP Centre South Yorkshire which is itself linked to the British Library's nationwide network.  It is possible to access a lot of useful resources including Esp@cenet from the Lightbox and one-to-one interviews with experts are offered on that site.

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

World IP Day and Start-up Leeds

Author Lad 2011 Licence CC BY-SA 4.0 Source Wikimedia Commons

Leeds Central Library

 

Jane Lambert

In Where to Learn about IP for Free which I posted to NIPC Inventors Club on 10 April 2023 I discussed the Intellectual Property Office's Online Training Tools and how to access them and the nationwide network of Business and Intellectual Property Centres ("BIPC").  My nearest Business and IP Centre is at Leeds Central Library in Calverly Street.  I know it very well because I helped Ged Doonan and Stef Stephenson to set up the Leeds Inventors Club and I chaired almost every one of its meetings before the library became part of the BIPC network.

I have just received notice from the Leeds BIPC of two events that I particularly commend:

• Intellectual Property: Innovation and Creativity at the Central Library between 10:30 and 12:00 on 26 April 2023 to celebrate World Intellectual Property Day; and 
• Start-up Leeds on 12 and 13 May 2023 at Deacon House, 1 Seacroft Avenue, Leeds LS14 6JD.
  

For those who are not already aware of it 

"World Intellectual Property Day is an international festival of creativity and innovation which takes place on or around 26 April of every year. It celebrates the entry into force of the international agreement that established the World Intellectual Property Organization ("WIPO"), the UN specialist agency that assists governments to protect investment in creativity, enterprise and innovation ("intellectual assets") through a bundle of laws known collectively as "intellectual property".

You can find more information about the day on the World IP Day page of NIPC Wales. The event at Calverley Street will be a celebration of inspirational women inventors, creators, and entrepreneurs. The Business and IP Team will give a short talk about "fantastic inventions created by women that changed the world and made an impact on everyday life".  According to the Eventbrite card "an opportunity to meet and network with fellow entrepreneurs and discuss the challenges and the advantages of women in business."

Sadly, I won't be at the Leeds event because I shall be on my way to Anglesey to chair the Menai Science Park's World IP Day Seminar as part of Wales's celebrations of World IP Day. That event starts at 12:30 which is half an hour after the event in Leeds is due to finish and it will take place online as well as in front of a live audience at the science park.  Everybody who attends the Calverley Street event - indeed everybody in Yorkshire - is cordially invited to attend the Welsh event online and they will learn a lot if they do.  In keeping with the themes of the event, two young women entrepreneurs, Anna Roberts who set up Explorage.com and Anna Burke who set up Animates Technologies will talk about their businesses and how they use IP. The discussion is likely to focus on trade marks, database rights, trade secrets, copyright and maybe even patents.  Chipping in with expert advice will be patent and attorney Louise Carr from Cameron IP.  In the audience, there will be other experts such as Ian Wishart of Sybaris Legal and IP Insurance and I will cover anything that others may miss such as enforcement and transactions.  To attend the Welsh event via Zoom click here.

In Invention-Con 2022: The US Patent and Trademark Office's Online Conference for Inventors, Makers and Entrepreneurs I wrote on 22 July 2022 in NIPC Inventors Club:

"There is a great need for practical advice on patent, design and trade mark prosecution, grant, equity and loan funding, setting up businesses and scaling up which Invention-Con appears to deliver."

Start-up Leeds seems to go part of the way towards meeting that need.  I could not find an Eventbrite  card or any details on Leeds BIPC's website for this year's workshop but the following events took place last year according to the card for last year:

"Friday 14th April (9.30 - 16.30)

• Building the foundations of a successful business
• Business planning using the Business Model Canvas
• How to price your products and services
• How to forecast your cashflow

You’ll also find out more about the free support on offer through the Business & IP Centre, including the exclusive resources available for new and existing businesses

...........

Saturday 15th April (10.00 - 15.30)

• An Introduction to Marketing
• Tax and bookkeeping
• An overview of copyright and trade marks

There’ll also be the opportunity for networking, a chance to find out more about the Business & IP Centre and ask your questions."

Although I would have expected a little bit more about IP such as how it should be integrated into a business plan, enforcement, insurance and at least an introduction to patents and trade secrecy anybody attending this course would get a good grounding.

Anyone wishing to discuss this matter further can call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact page, 

Sheffield Business and IP Centre: IP Rights and Brexit

IP Rights and Brexit from Jane Lambert

One of four things has to happen between now and the 29 of this month:

• The withdrawal agreement that art 50 (2) of the Treaty on European European Union required the EU and UK to negotiate and conclude may be approved by Parliament in which case we shall leave the EU on the 29 but EU law will remain in force until 31 Dec 2020 at the earliest;
• The Prime Ministers notice of intention to leave the EU may be revoked in which case everything will remain the same forever;
• The UK and remaining EU member states may agree to extend the 2-year notice period in accordance with art 50 (3) in which case everything will remain the same as it is now until the end of that further period; or
• Nothing may be done between now and the 29 of this month in which case the UK will leave the EU at 23:00 on the 29 and EU law will cease to apply.

We shall not learn which of those four will happen until 12 March at the earliest and perhaps not even then if the withdrawal agreement is voted down again.

My presentation to Sheffield Business and IP Centre at Sheffield Central Library on 6 March 2019 considered the consequences for IP of each of the four scenarios.  It analysed the IP provisions of the draft withdrawal agreement which will be implemented under draft secondary legislation pursuant to the European Union (Withdrawal) Act 2018 from midnight on 1 Jan 2021 at the latest if that agreement is approved by Parliament.   Such secondary legislation will come into effect at 23:00 on 29 March 2019 if the UK leaves the EU without a withdrawal agreement.  The legislation will not be needed at all if the 2017 notice is revoked.  Its implementation will be delayed until at least the end of the extension period if the 2-year notice is extended.

The presentation considers the future of the Unified Patent Court and the unitary patent.   If the 2017 notice is revoked the UPC Agreement could come into force with continued British participation so long as a challenge to the constitutionality of  German certification in the German Constitutional Court is defeated. If the notice period is extended or a withdrawal agreement is approved by Parliament continued British participation may be possible.   It is highly unlikely if the EU leaves without an agreement.

The draft secondary legislation provides for the conversion of EU trade marks and Community designs and plant varieties into corresponding national rights.  EU legislation on supplemental protection certificates and compulsory licences will be incorporated into national law.  But the Brussels Regulation and Lugano Convention could fall away without a withdrawal agreement and English and Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish courts will lose the right to seek preliminary rulings on the interpretation of EU law from the Court of Justice of the European Union.

Should anyone wish to discuss this presentation or the effect of Brexit on IP rights generally, they should call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.  

Initial Advice and Signposting

Crown copyright
Open Government Licence V1.0

Jane Lambert

On 9 Oct 2017, I wrote about How to Access Specialist IP Services in Yorkshire for Free.  Shortly after that article appeared I received a message through my contact form that began with the words:

"Hi Jane, I noticed some information that you posted on http://ipyorkshire.blogspot.co.uk/.I am looking for some advice and feel like I am trying to find my way in the dark."

I have every sympathy with that person. There is no shortage of intellectual property advisors in Yorkshire or anywhere else. The problem is knowing whom to approach and where to start.

That's where I can help. In my many years of practice at the intellectual property bar (most of which have been spent in the North of England) I have come across most of the patent and trade mark attorneys in Yorkshire as well as many of the solicitors who specialize in IP work. I also know many of the other professionals who can help you such as product development consultants and specialist IP insurance brokers. Having run patent clinics at one time or another in Barnsley, Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield. Leeds, Rotherham and Sheffield and the Leeds and Sheffield inventors' clubs I have worked closely with the Business and Intellectual Property Centres at Leeds, Sheffield and Hull Central Libraries. They provide all sorts of useful services such as patent searching, lots of useful courses on such matters as basic intellectual property rights and business planning and most if not all of the technical and marketing resources that you are likely to need.I can introduce you to those services and resources.

Here is how I replied to the enquiry I mentioned above:

"The main free resources that exist in Yorkshire are the Business and IP Centres in Leeds, Sheffield and Hull, the IP clinics operated by the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys in various parts of the country including Leeds and Sheffield and my clinics at Barnsley Business and Innovation Centre which take place on the second Tuesday of every month between 16:30 and 18:00 (see Supporting Enterprise, Innovation and Creativity in South Yorkshire 7 Sept 2017 IP Yorkshire)."

I also gave some initial advice on IP strategy:

"The best way to identify the IP protection you need is to consider your business plan and ask yourself the following questions:

• What are likely to be my main sources of revenue during the period of the business plan?

• What are the main threats to those revenue streams? These are likely to be commercial like competing products or changing tastes and fashions but there may be legal threats like plagiarism.

• What are the main countermeasures that I can take against those threats? Most of those will be commercial such as reducing prices or developing new product ranges or markets but there may be some legal measures such as a patent for a vital new product or a design registration.

• Remember that there is often a choice of legal countermeasures. A new product, for example, can be kept under wraps for a while and disclosed in confidence only to those who need to see it or you can publish it to the world in exchange for a patent.

• Make sure you can fund an infringement claim or revocation action. That usually requires specialist IP insurance but there are other options."

I then addressed the specific issue and invited the enquirer to make an appointment to attend my next pro bono clinic in Barnsley on 14 Nov if he still had questions.

The first step is to fill in this form:

Now I don't know the answer to every intellectual property question but I can help with a lot of them (see "My Services in Yorkshire"). However, if I can't resolve a problem by myself the chances are that I know someone who can.

I will not charge for this initial advice or signposting though there may be a charge if you want to instruct me for any of my other services. There may also be a charge from any of the other professional service providers to whom I may refer you. If there is, I and all the other service providers will agree the charge or charging basis before starting work.

If you want to discuss this article call me on +44 (0)20 7404 5252 or send me a message through my contact page.