Practising the Dark Arts in Leeds and Sheffield - roll up to be enlightened

Leeds Inventors Group

A patent is granted for inventions that are new and involve an inventive step.   An invention may be new to you and to everyone else you know but if someone somewhere in the world dreamed it up before you, you don't get your patent. If by some chance you do get a patent and your invention turns out not to have been new you stand to lose your patent despite the fortune you may have paid in professional, official and renewal fees to get it. So searching should be important to every inventor.

Searching should also be important to anyone who may be accused of infringing the patent. If he or she finds that the invention has been anticipated or that it was obvious then the patent would be invalid. And if the patent is invalid there is nothing to infringe.

Searching for patents is a dark art practised by patent agents, librarians examiners and others at midnight on moonless nights in Armley cemetery with their familiar (an immortal cat called Ginger who is himself something of an inventor) after dancing anti-clockwise round a computer in a pentagon.

However, two of them have broken ranks.  Ged and Stef will share their secrets with you at a Patent Searching Workshop at 18:00 this evening at Leeds Central Library. There are still one or two places left so if you want to find out about this topic then now's your chance. You can register for the event through Eventbrite and I hope that at least some of my instructing solicitors will do just that.

Sheffield Inventors Group has already had its July meeting - a fascinating talk by Pat Ross of Creative Genie on identifying your USP. Another dark art perhaps.   You can find my write-up at "Identifying your USP - the Overlap between Design and Invention" 9 July 2013 Inventors Club

Leeds Inventors Group: Patent Box and R & D Credits

The patent box is a tax concession to encourage businesses to invest in research and development in the UK which came into force on 1 April 2013.  As  one of the few sets of chambers with expertise in tax as well as intellectual property we have been touring the country with our good friends in BDO and Jackson & Canter.

We have already held one workshop on the patent box in Liverpool on 29 April 2013 at which Vince Walker and I gave talks. You can download our presentations from "The Patent Box Workshop: Liverpool Inventors Club" IP North West on 3 May 213.   

There will be a similar workshop at Leeds Inventors Group which will take place at Leeds Central Library, Calverley Street, Leeds, LS1 3AB on 8 May at 18:00.   My presentation will be very much the same as at Liverpool but the the main speaker will be Dan Brookes tax director of BDO's office in Leeds whose face appears above.

If you want to discuss the patent box or any aspect of patent law call us on  0113 320 3232, 01484 599090 or 020 7404 5252 or send a message through our contact form. You can also follow me on Facebook, Linkedin, twitter or Xing.

Patent Ownership Co-Ownership and Corporate Ownership

This was the title of Roger Lowe's talk to Sheffield Inventors Group on Monday. Roger is proprietor of ip4all, an intellectual property consultancy in Huddersfield.

He began his talk by quoting Mark Getty:

"Intellectual property is the oil of the 21 century. Look at the richest men a hundred years ago; they all made their money extracting natural resources or moving them around. All today’s richest men have made their money out of intellectual property."

Roger then discussed patents as property rights, something that can be bought, sold or charged. He considered ownership and warned that:

"The mere suggestion of co-ownership of patents makes the blood of IP practitioners run cold."

Co-ownership must be adopted only as a last resort.

Too true. He then explained why. Having told us why co-ownership is a bad thing he considered some of the alternatives such as licensing and corporate ownership. The best time to consider these issues is before the application for a patent but not every patent agent tells you that.

There will be no Inventors' Group meeting for May because the first Monday falls on the Mayday Bank Holiday but there will be an exhibition at Central Library to celebrate World IP Day on 26 April 2011. If you want to join the club or set up an inventors' club in your own area call us on 0800 862 0055 or complete our contact form.