nipc
Wales: Ideas and Information on Intellectual Property - Cymru: Syniadau a Gwybodaeth am Eiddo Deallusol
Saturday, 23 November 2024
Wales Enterprise Day - The Works
Thursday, 21 November 2024
Investment Fund for Wales
Wednesday, 13 November 2024
IPO's Welsh Language Website
Pont Gludo Casnewydd - Transporter Bridge Newport (c) 2015 Jane Elizabeth Lambert: all rights reserved |
"Visitors to the Intellectual Property Office’s home page and main navigation pages on GOV.UK will now see that these are bilingual, as the IPO completes the first phase of its programme of work to provide digital information and services in Welsh."
And so it does:
There are still a few places at the event online and at the venue, If you want to take part you can register here,
Friday, 1 November 2024
Wales Enterprise Day 2024 - Diwrnod Menter Cymru 2024
Wales Enterprise Day takes place on or around 18 Nov of every year. It grew out of the Menai Science Park's World Intellectual Property Day celebrations in 2021, The theme that year was "Taking your Ideas to Market". The topic was so large that the science park decided to hold two events, one focusing on startups on Word Intellectual Property Daty and another on scaleups in autumn. Emily Roberts suggested that the Autumn event should be called Wales Enterprise Day and the name stuck. Last year Aberinnovation and Tramshed joined our celebrations. This year we shall invite organizations, communities and individuals throughout Wales and beyond to take part in the day.
The main celebrations will be a hybrid online and in-person seminar on 18 Nov between 12:00 and 14:00. We have some star speakers such as Antony Craggs of Shoosmirths, Geraint McGrath of the Foresight Group, Tom Burke of Haia and Streams+ and I shall chair the event. Antony was one of the speakers at the Cambridge IP Law Summer School and he gave one of the best presentations on IP strategy and enforcement that I have ever heard. I signed him up to deliver a similar talk to Wales Enterprise Day before he left the conference hall. I met Geraint at the St David's Day Dinner at the Guildhall in March. He will discuss the Investment Fund for Wales and the massive opportunities it offers to Welsh businesses. Tom has co-founded several of M-SParc's tenant companies and he is now the Innovation Manager of M-SParc. We recently collaborated on the Convergent Content Scaler Programme on 25 Sept 2024 at which I discussed IP rights. We have invited several other distinguished speakers and everybody in the audience will be invited to participate.
For those who want to attend in person, the seminar will take place in M-SParc's boardroom. The event is free and readers can reserve their places by booking online. Anyone wishing to discuss this article may call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.
Saturday, 26 October 2024
Digidol 24
Llanbrynmair, the first community in the UK with full-fibre broadband Author Folks at 137 Licence CC BY0SA 3,0 Source Wikimedia Commons |
"The unlicensed use of creatiuve works for training generative AI is a major unjust threat to the livelihood of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted"
I asked Mr Jones whether he agreed that there was a distinction to be drawn between creativity and intelligence. To my surprise, he replied that there wasn't. I responded that they are completely different mental processes, the former being an exercise in understanding and the latter an inspiration of the spirit. My view is that authors like Kazuo Ishiguro and Ian Rankin have nothing to worry about. A machine may be great at creating elevator music but will never produce a work that stands comparison with Chopin.
A highlight of the day was an unscheduled session of short presentations by three of M-SParc's tenants in the atrium. One of the speakers was Tomos Owen who co-founded Pelly. That is an app that helps football clubs make recruitment and other decisions. This is another product that has been developed in the science park and has considerable commercial potential.
The last of the plenary speakers was Susi Marston who discussed the digital infrastructure that is soon to be rolled out in Wales. She promised very similar services to those that are available in Estonia including tariff-free voice calls and very fast broadband. BT had a stand in the atrium which I visited during one of the breaks. There I learned about the 5G mobile network that the company is installing. I was told by one of Ms Marston's colleagues that there is an excellent signal at the summit of Yr Wyddfa and that Northern Ireland has the most advanced fibre network in the UK.
Breakout sessions that I would have attended had it been possible to be in two places at once included
- Huw Watkins and Iqbal Bedi on Technology Options to Improve SME Performance - Examples from North Wales and the BT Connectivity Roadshow in the Ffiws room,
- Senedd member Rhin ap Iorwerth's reflections on the Digital Strategy, the panel discussion on smart buildings and decarbonization and the Federation of Small Businesses' Creative Report in the Boardroom, and
- Business Wales's workshops in the Collaboration Room.
Friday, 27 September 2024
M-SParc Returns to London
(c) 2024 Jane Elizabeth Lambert all rights reserved Gareth the Orangutan at the London Welsh Centre 25 Sep |
During last year's Indian summer, representatives of the Menai Science Park ("M-SParc") held a series of events at the House of Lords, the London Welsh School and the Welsh Government's London offices in Victoria. I attended two of those events and discussed them in Reflections on Wales Innovation Week in London. Yesterday and the day before the M-SParc team returned to London to promote opportunities, investment, entrepreneurship and innovation in Wales (see M-SParc #ArYLonDon on the M-SParc website).
This year they held a reception at the London Welsh Centre on 25 Sept 2024 and continued the next day with STEM workshops at the London Welsh School and a pitching event organized by Global Welsh in Whitechapel at which M-SParc was a sponsor. As soon as I finished my talk on intellectual property for the Convergent Content Scaler I took a train to London which arrived just in time for the reception at the London Welsh Centre.
Someone at M-SParc took or made arrangements for a video to be taken of the event and posted it to Linkedin. The event took place in the first-floor bar of the Centre. I was shown the dancing robot and invited to try my luck at one of the video games. I also circulated and introduced myself to some of the speakers and other guests.
Sometime after 18:30, Pryderi ap Rhisiart, M-SParc's Managing Director, introduced himself to the audience. He said a few words about the science park, the trip to London and the programme for the evening, He then introduced Hywel Pitts, a superabundantly talented singer I would never have discovered had I not started to study Welsh.
He had the audience in fits of laughter. Sadly most of his jokes and allusions passed over my head because I could not keep pace with the lyrics or patter. While my Welsh is a little bit more than "tipyn bach" it is a long way short of "yn rhugl." Simultaneous translation was available but I try not to use it when learning a language. It is usually possible to pick up the gist of a conversation and attune the ear but relying on an interpreter teaches nothing. Happily, there is a song about Brexit recorded on YouTube that Hywel sang with another popular singer known as "the Welsh Whisperer." The lyrics of that song are so obvious that anyone can follow that song sufficiently to appreciate both artists' wits.
After the singing, Pryderi introduced a panel of speakers:
- Llinos Medi MP, the recently elected member for Ynys Môn
- Owain James of Darogan Talent
- Huw Brassington of Tenet Consultants, and
- Peter Evans of Wales in London.
I boarded my train with minutes to spare, picked up my car at the station car park and arrived him just after 02:00. It had been a very long day but a very pleasant one.
Thursday, 26 September 2024
The Welsh Science Parks' Convergent Content Scaler Programme
The Menai Science Park ("M-SParc") has been running a very successful accelerator programme for startups for several years. In Two Kinds of Accelerators - Colin Jackson in a Race and Accelerators for Startups, I described accelerator programmes as "fixed-term, cohort-based programmes, that include mentorship and educational components and culminate in a public pitch event or demo day. Another way of describing an accelerator is as a cross between The Apprentice and Dragons' Den. Your idea is pinched, pulled and prodded tested to destruction but if it survives you will receive training, mentoring and ultimately funding." I discussed M-SParc's accelerator programme on 15 Feb 2022 and the Accelerator's Showcase on 22 June 2022.
Startups cannot remain startups forever and as I noted in IP Strategy to Scale-Up on 19 Oct 2021 the transition from startup to scaleup is often described as a chasm. I explained in that article
"That is because most scale-ups are very different from start-ups in terms of governance, marketing and funding. One obvious difference is that start-ups can be funded by their founders themselves, possibly with the support of friends and family and maybe some grants or soft loans whereas scale-ups usually need investment from third parties such as angels, venture capitalists and in a few rare cases the AIM."
Such investors will expect safeguards for their investments and the bundle of laws that protect investment in innovation, branding and creativity is known collectively as "intellectual property." It was for that reason that Tom Burke invited me to give a talk on "Safeguarding Investment in Convergent Content" to the Convergent Content Scaler between 10:00 and 12:00 on 25 Sept 2024.
The Convergent Content Scaler is a collaboration between M-SParc on Ynys Môn and Tramshed Tech in South Wales. It is a 12-week programme in which participants will receive tailored support to help scale up and expand on creative tech projects as well as gain access to further funding, resources and coaching. I attended the launch at M-SParc and online on 12 Sept 2024 between 09:00 and 11:00.
My talk was received very generously by the audience. Klaire Tanner one of the attendees wrote:
"Completely forgot to tell you that I’ve been accepted onto the Convergent Content Scaler Programme, run by Tramshed Tech and M-SParc 🚀
Had a fantastic time this morning on the programme, Jane Lambert did a really insightful session on IP!"
She also posted some lovely photos of the smiling faces of the M-SParc attendees in the park's Collaboration Room. Tom wrote: "Was a fantastic session! Diolch yn fawr Jane Lambert." I replied that it is always a pleasure to work with Tom and that Klaire had delivered a splendid talk on AI from which I had learnt a lot in the same room earlier this year. For the convenience of those who attended my talk and anyone else who may be interested I have uploaded my slides to Slideshare,
After the talk, I discussed some of the IP issues of some of the members of the audience. There was insufficient time to address everyone's issue and I invited the attendees to book appointments on our "Initial Advice and Signposting" clinic by filling in the form below. Anybody wishing to discuss this article may call me on 020 7404 5252 during normal office hours or send me a message through my contact page.