Northern Max - a new Healthcare Accelerator in Bradford

Bradford Royal Infirmary

Author David Spencer

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Jane Lambert

In Accelerators and Incubators in the Leeds City Region 22 April 2017 IP Yorkshire I wrote:

"Both accelerators and incubators help to launch fledgling businesses. Accelerators offer structured development and training with opportunities to attract funding for the most attractive businesses. Incubators are more like serviced offices with mentoring and other forms of business and technical support thrown in."

When I penned that article there were only four accelerators and all of them were in Leeds. I can now report the launch of a new one in Bradford for the healthcare industry called Northern Max. It came to my attention through a posting on the Yorkshire Business Desk: SMEs and start-ups embark on programme to bring innovative health solutions to market 12 Jan 2018

Northern Max describes itself as "a market-access focused 12-week accelerator programme that has been funded by City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council and AD:Venture."  AD:Venture supports start-ups and young business in their first 3 years of trading,within the Leeds City Region. Such support consists of "a tailored mix of practical advice, coaching, outcome focused events, academic support, incubation work space, finance brokerage, low rate loans and help".

The accelerator programme started on 8 Jan 2018 at the Digital Exchange in Little Germany. Businesses participating in the programme will have an opportunity to:

• validate their technology and business models;
• create and test minimum viable products; and
• be introduced to potential customers, funders and investors.

They should leave with a clear understanding of growth strategy, funding options and market opportunities. At least some should have secured some sort of funding and all will have tested their assumptions in live NHS and care settings, and pitched to potential customers and investors.  The programme will be provided by Innov8tive Minds and the Digital Health Enterprise Zone ("DHEZ").

Neither the The Business Desk article nor the announcements on the AD:Venture or the DHEZ websites state whether participating businesses will be made aware of the dangers of inadvertently infringing other businesses' patents, trade marks or other intellectual property rights or of competitors exploiting their intellectual assets through failing to protect then properly, If they have not been alerted to those dangers, they should be.

Happily, the Intellectual Property Office ("IPO") has recently updated its IP Basics guidance.  The best time to start thinking about these matters is when writing a business plan.  As the IPO notes:

" Your business builds goodwill and recognition through your brand, product or service. This value builds up over time and becomes integral linked to your business’s IP assets. If used well, IP can offer a solid platform for any business to grow. How you plan, manage and protect your ideas should be a crucial feature in your business planning. What seems unimportant today could be worth millions of pounds in the future, if protected."

Businesses on the Northern Max programme can find additional information on how to incorporate IP into their business plans in Jane Lambert Putting IP at the Heart of Your Business Plan 2 Jan 2015 NIPC News and Jane Lambert Why every business plan should take account of intellectual property 3 April 2016 NIPC News,

In Getting Help, the IPO advises that the British Library Business and IP Centre supports entrepreneurs, inventors and small businesses and will also give advice on creating a business plan. The British Library works with a number of public libraries around the country to provide similar advice locally at Business and IP Centres. The nearest Centre to Bradford is at Leeds Central Library.

Sometimes businesses need specialist professional advice and it is there that enormous care should be taken. Businesses requiring patents should consult a patent attorney and those needing trade marks a trade mark attorney. Law firms that are members of the Intellectual Property Lawyers Association can advise on licensing, joint ventures, funding and other business transactions, They can also assist parties to resolve infringement and other disputes.  Barristers who subscribe to the Intellectual Property Bar Association support patent and trade mark attorneys and solicitors by advising on difficult points of law, drafting complex legal instruments and presenting cases before judges and hearing officers much in the way that consultant physicians and surgeons support GPs in medicine (see Jane Lambert IP Services from Barristers 6 April 2013 NIPC News).

I wish Innov8tive Minds, DHEZ, participating businesses and everyone involved in the Northern Max project every success.  Should any of them wish to discuss this article or IP generally they should call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact page.

FiNexus Labs: Leeds's "Digital Woodwork Shop"

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Jane Lambert

When he addressed the FinTech North event at Leeds Digital Festival on 26 April 2017, Christopher Woolard, Executive Director of Strategy and Competition at the Financial Conduct Authority said:

"We’re especially interested in areas where ‘Fin’ and ‘Tech’ collide, that is, areas that have both strong financial centres and a technology presence, often backed by strong relationships with local universities.
We’ve mapped these and we see two specific locations where we think we can add value to emerging hubs – namely in the Edinburgh-Glasgow corridor and the Leeds-Manchester area.
.......................
In Leeds, the development of a FiNexus Lab – a collaboration between local government, industry and central government – will be key to creating a fertile ground for FinTech firms to grow"

(see  his speech "The FCA's regional FinTech engagement" 26 April 2017 FCA website).

The FiNexus Labs is now inviting enquiries. It is described by its managing director, Christopher Sier, as a "digital woodwork shop" or, as the website puts it, "a multi-stakeholder project that will build a Leeds City Region-based digital innovation laboratory and hub on three key pillars ..... industry lab environment, startup ecosystem [and] centre for academic research." A graphic on the "About" page shows how the project is supposed to work.

"- An industry lab environment focusing on test & learn for the ecosystem consisting of access to advanced technologies, sandbox, hackathons (where industry meets start-ups), compliance protection, as well as UX testing tied into a free school / city user base

- A startup ecosystem that feeds into the wider Leeds economy and consisting of a fintech incubator

- A knowledge exchange hub for both physical and virtual networking and info depository consisting of events, conferencing, flexible meeting space, idea exchange, speed dating."

All this is expected to bring benefits for industry, academics and entrepreneurs. The enterprise is to be housed in a building under construction on the White Rose Office Park near Beeston. Its landlord, Munroe K is one of the project's partners together with Zerado and Singularity Universiy of the USA. The rest of the website is rather bare except for a blog with a few posts and a reference to a "Grand Challenge" and invitation to get involved,

It is not clear whether FiNexus Labs has attracted any businesses yet.  As you can see from the table in my article, Protecting FinTech Innovation  27 April 2017 NIPC Law there does seem to be a lot of fintech accelerators and incubators about nowadays but it would also appear from the DIFC's press release on the Dubai accelerator that demand for places in incubators and accelerators greatly exceeds supply (see FinTech in Dubai 3 Aug 2017 NIPC Gulf).

In my FinTech page, I noted that there were at least three sets of legal issues for fintech entrepreneurs:

• data protection particularly from next May when the General Data Protection Regulation takes effect;
• intellectual property issues as software, methods of doing business and the presentation of information are excluded from the definition of patentable invention as such, and
• regulation of the industry.

It is in this last regard that the Financial Conduct Authority is showing considerable flexibility and indeed originality with its regulatory sandbox. In his speech to FinTech North Mr Woolard promised to "work with the local authorities, development partners and firms in those locations, as well as the Scottish Government and the Treasury's digital envoys ..........  to encourage the emergence of more innovative firms, whether home grown or inward investors."

That leaves IP and data protection.  As I said in How far (if at all) is it possible to protect Innovation in Financial Technology? 12 Aug 2014 IP protection of fintech products and services is not easy but there are things that businesses can do. I shall follow this venture with great interest and will always be glad to help. I have been working in this area of law ever since I was legal advisor to VISA International for Europe, the Middle East and Africa in 1983 and contributed much to the early literature of fintech law,

Should anybody wish to discuss these issues, call me on 020 7404 5252 during business hours or send me a message through my contact form.

Further Reading

Date	Author	Title	Publication
03 Aug 2017	Jane Lambert	FinTech	NIPC Law
03 Aug 2017	Jane Lambert	FinTech Glossary	NIPC Law
12 Aug 2014	Jane Lambert	How far (if at all) is it possible to protect Innovation in Financial Technology?	IP Yorkshire