Coleg Menai Hosts Gogledd Creadigol at its New Campus

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Jane Lambert

Gogledd Creadigol or Creative North Wales describes itself on its Facebook page as "a network for the creative digital industries in North Wales".  Its aim is to encourage networking and collaboration between the digital creative companies and further and higher education institutions in order to secure a prosperous future for the industry in North Wales.

I first learned about the network on 21 April 2011 when I took part in a dialogue with Carwyn Edwards on Copyright and ICT organized by North Wales Tech and North Wales Creative.  Copies of my slides for that event can be downloaded from Slideshare.  I wrote about it in Gogledd Creadigol on 11 May 2021. I subsequently attended a joint meeting of North Wales Creative and Creative Wales at the Galeri arts centre in Caernarfon on 9 Nov 2022 (see North Wales Creative meets Creative Wales 11 Nov 2022).  I also attended Gogledd Creadigol's Creative Digital  Awards Ceremony at Theatr Clwyd in Mold on 2 Feb 2023.

Gogledd Creadigol's most recent meeting took place on the new Bangor campus of Coleg Menai on the Parc Menai business park.  It began with a tour of the campus.  Some idea of its impressive educational and skills training facilities can be gained from the above video and the photos on Gogledd Creadigol's Facebook page.  The new Bangor campus forms part of Grŵp Llandrillo Menai which is an amalgamation of Coleg Llandrillo, Coleg Menai and Coleg Meirion-Dwyfor.  The merged establishment is enormous employing 2,000 staff and teaching 21,000 students in Anglesey, Conwy, Denbighshire and Gwynedd.

After an introduction from the Chair and an update from Tom Burke there were presentations from the Federation of Small Businesses, North Wales Regional Skills Partnership, Supertemps and Cymru Creadigol.  The FSB promoted The Power of Creativity, a study of the creative industries in Wales which it had published on 24 Oct 2024.  The speaker from the Skills Partnership spoke about training in the creative sector.  One slide which stuck in my mind showed that a higher proportion of qualified persons in the creative sector in Anglesey and Gwynedd than those in Northeast Wales.  The speaker attributed that to a longer commute to the English border.  I put it to her that it was also consistent with the creation of new jobs and business opportunities at M-SParc.   She did not disagree. 

According to the FSB the turnover of the creative industries in Wales was £3.8 billion in 2022 contributing 5.3% to the nation's GDP.  Some 40% of the businesses in the sector are one-person concerns and 80% of those industries employ between 1 and 9 people.  The legal protection of brands, designs and works of art or literature is crucial to the success of those businesses.

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

Negotiating Consultancy and Licensing Agreements with Universities

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Jane Lambert

On Thursday I delivered a seminar on intellectual property law to the teams working on research, innovation, commercialization and partnership support for Bangor University.  I wrote about my visit in The Day I went to Bangor in NIPC News on 24 Feb 2023.  My audience included professionals who negotiate licence and consultancy agreements with third parties.

Licence agreements are made between owners of intellectual property rights and those who wish to use the technology protected by such rights.  Universities acquire considerable technical and scientific knowledge through research carried out by their academics and graduate students much of which can be useful for business. Where such research is protected by patents, unregistered design rights, supplementary unregistered designs, trade secrecy law or other intellectual property rights the university may license businesses and entrepreneurs to use the research.

Consultancy agreements are made between experts and those who wish to use their expertise.  Academics and graduate students often acquire considerable expertise in an area of science or technology through their research.   Businesses and entrepreneurs who wish to use such expertise may contract with the university to consult such an academic or student.  They may ask him or her to design or test something or carry out further sponsored research.

The licensing and consultancy services that are available from Bangor University are indexed on the Business Services page of its website.   These consist of a Collaboration Hub, Intellectual Property (IP) and Commercialization, Conferencing and Business Dining.  The services available from the Collaboration Hub that are most likely to interest businesses include knowledge exchange, collaborative research projects, consultancy and access to the University's facilities.  Those available from Intellectual Property and Commercialization are licensing and spinouts.

Most universities in Wales and indeed the rest of the United Kingdom as well as many more abroad offer similar services to businesses.   When negotiating with them, it is prudent to take the following steps.

• First, whenever you disclose confidential information to a third party make sure that he or she knows that the information is confidential and that you are confiding it to him or her in circumstances giving rise to an obligation of confidence.   You must set out precisely how the information may be used, who may see it and, in the case of a disclosure of documents when you need them back.   I gave a lot of information about this topic in  Trade Secrets and Non-Disclosure Agreements on 1 April 2018.
• Secondly, summarize the terms that you and the university may agree subject to contract in a document known as "heads of terms" or "heads of agreement".  Unless you and the university agree otherwise, most if not all the terms should be non-binding.  Even though the instrument should be non-binding it is a good idea for both parties to sign it so that there can be no doubt as to each party's understanding.   There is a good example of such an agreement and some explanatory notes on the Gov.UK website.
• The sample agreement is one of several that have been drawn up by a committee chaired by Sir Richard Lambert known as the Lambert Toolkit.   I attended and contributed to one of the drafting meetings of that committee.  The core of the toolkit consists of  7 draft agreements which are used by Bangor and many other universities.  Guidance on those draft agreements can be obtained from a "Decision Guide."
• A licence agreement is likely to be drawn up by one of the parties from scratch.   Tactically it is usually better for the licensee to draft it rather than rely on the university,   A typical licence will include the names and addresses of the parties, recitals on the background to the agreement, the grant, an interpretation clause, a description of rights granted, the territory and the term, the consideration for the licence, remedies for non-payment or delay, the licensor's obligations and the licensee's, provisions for termination, rights on termination, whole agreement, severance and other boilerplate clauses, provision for the service of notices and notifications, choice of law and jurisdiction.    

It is prudent to enlist the help of a lawyer or patent or trade mark attorney for at least some of the stages of the negotiation and drafting.   Such a lawyer can be a barrister specializing in intellectual property and technology law instructed under the public access scheme or a solicitor with expertise in those areas of the law.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article or its contents may call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form at other times.

M-SParc's Accelerator Programme

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Jane Lambert

The Menai Science Park's announcement of an accelerator programme in conjunction with Bangor University is potentially very important because startup accelerators like Y Combinator, TechStars and Seedcamp are among the reasons for the success of Silicon Valley.  They offer mentoring and networking with privileged access to investment.  They benefit both entrepreneurs and investors as well as the organizations that host those programmes.

Though the idea of selecting and nurturing a cohort of promising young businesses originated in the United States it quickly spread to Shenzhen, Hydrabad and the rest of the world including the United Kingdom.  There are now very successful accelerator programmes around Silicon Roundabout (roughly Shoreditch to the Olympic Park in Stratford), Silicon Fen (Cambridge) and Silicon Glen (St Andrews, Dundee and Edinburgh).  We even have our own Silicon Ginnel in Yorkshire which I mentioned in Accelerators and Incubators in the Leeds City Region on 22 Jan 2017 in IP Yorkshire.   I featured the Northern Max healthcare accelerator in Bradford on 12 Jan 2018 and was lucky enough to attend its demo day a few weeks later (see Jane Lambert NorthernMAX Demo Day 25 March 2018 IP Yorkshire).

For entrepreneurs who are considering an accelerator programme, I compiled an Accelerator and Incubator resource page in 2017.  Some of those articles have been written by me but there are also contributions from others.   The page needs to be updated but the basic information is there.  Up to now, there have not been too many accelerator programmes in Wales which may explain why a Cardiff fintech firm Delio travelled all the way to Dubai to join that emirate's accelerator (see Jane Lambert British Participation in Dunai FinTech Accelerator Programme  22 Aug 2017 NIPC Gulf).

Anyone who wants to join Sbardun (the M-Sparc and Bangor University programme) will have to move quickly because applications must be lodged by 17 Feb 2022.  Those who are chosen will undergo 

"A five-month programme for North Wales' top startups. Expert mentoring, a community of likeminded founders, your own global advisory board with powerful networks and exclusive opportunities for growth."

Almost certainly the businesses on the programme will establish brands and create new products and processes which is where patent and trade mark attorneys and IP lawyers come in.  They will also enter shareholders agreements with each other and investors which is where commercial lawyers can help.  A network of specialist advisors is rapidly establishing itself around the Menai region.  I wonder how long it will take for the name "Silicon Strait" or "Afon Silicon" to catch on.

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

Gogledd Creadigol

Caernarfon from the Castle Battlements

© 2018 Jane Lambert: all rights reserved 

 

Jane Lambert

Last month I was privileged to take part in a short webinar organized by Gogledd Creadigol (Creative North Wales) on Copyright Licensing and ICT.  Gogledd Creadigol describes itself as a voice for the digital creative industries of North Wales at the centre of "the creative corridor from Dublin, through north Wales to the Northern Powerhouse region."

The strength and diversity of the creative sector are recorded in the 2018 North Wales Creative Audit.  The region's assets include the University of Bangor with its Applied Design Centre. Wrexham Glyndwr University with its Creative Arts Research Centre, the Pontio Arts and Innovation Centre with its FabLab and Bryn Terfel Theatre and the Menai Science Park which hosts Ffiws and works closely with Gogledd Creadigol.  According to Gogledd Creadigol's home page, there are over 1,100 businesses in the sector in North Wales which has helped to create 10,800 jobs paying an average of £711 each week.

Gogledd Creadigol works with Bangor and Wrexham Glyndwr Universities, the North Wales Economic Ambition Board and North Wales Business Council, the BBC and S4C, CREAD, RONDO and many other arts and business institutions.   In addition to my contribution, it has held several very successful event including Powering Up the Games Sector which I attended and thoroughly enjoyed.  Details of those events appear in the News section.

My contact at Gogledd Creadigol is Sofie Roberts of the Menai Science Park who can be contacted through its website and Linkedin.  Anyone wishing to discuss this article or the creative industries generally may call me on 020 7404 5252 or send me a message through my contact page.

Big Ideas Wales- Understanding IP

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Jane Lambert

Yesterday I attended a webinar given by the Intellectual Property Office to Big Ideas Wales entitled Understanding IP.  It consisted of a presentation given by Nich Chard, one of the business engagement officers at the Intellectual Property Office and a Q&A at which Nick and Emma Richards, Business outreach manager at the Office, answered questions from members of the audience.  It was advertised to begin at 17:30 and end at 18:00 but there were so many questions that it continued until 18:15. According to Nick, there were about 20 individuals on the call including him and Emma.

I attended the webinar because I have given a lot of talks on IP and held a lot of clinics across Wales mainly at the Menai Science Park on Anglesey but also at Parc Menai near Bangor, Aberystwyth University, the Beacon Centre at Llanelli and Glyndwr University at Wrexham.  I do that work because IP is essential to securing investment in branding, design, technology and creativity.  Such specialist advisory services as Wales enjoys are concentrated around Cardiff, Newport and Swansea.  If Wales is to attract investment to establish new knowledge-based industries to reverse the decline of so many of its industries and depopulation of its rural communities that have occurred during my lifetime it must protect such intellectual assets.

On its "About" page, Business Wales states that it "is here to inspire the next generation of entrepreneurs in Wales and encourage young people under 25 to develop enterprise skills whatever the career choice." its website provides an introduction to business for younger audiences and makes the right links to business.wales.gov.uk to help build knowledge of business; with tools, information and help for those who want to start a business.  Big Ideas Wales endeavours to help those under 25:

• "Get some inspiration about what you might want to do in the future
• Find out a what it’s like to start your own business
• Hear from other entrepreneurs in Wales (who share their stories and top tips!)
• Discover more about yourself with useful guides and self assessments
• Help you generate ideas and think them through
• Get involved in enterprise and take advantage of opportunities and workshops
• Learn about key business topics and links to improve your knowledge
• Find out what’s happening in your college or university and how to get involved!
• Find out what “business support” is all about and who might help
• Join like minded young people on our social media channels Facebook,Twitter and Instagram."

There is certainly a fair amount of information on the Big Ideas site including some guidance on intellectual property on "How to pick a business idea page". 

Nick's presentation covered trade marks, copyrights, design registration, patents and confident all within half an hour.  Clearly, he couldn't cover everything in that time and he did very well to cover as much as he did. While he was talking members of the audience were asking questions in the chat channel which Emma did her best to answer.  On certain aspects of trade mark law, Nick went into quite a lot of detail. However, one matter that could have been emphasized is that with a few exceptions IP rights have to be enforced by the owner in the civil courts and that can be both risky and expensive.  Whenever I give a similar talk I stress the need for adequate funding of enforcement which usually means specialist IP insurance since most legal indemnity policies specifically exclude IP.

Although they are concentrated in the Southeast corner of Wales, the country has some valuable resources. In addition to the Intellectual Property Office at Newport and the Business and Property Courts in Cardiff, there is Inngot IP at Swansea which superseded IP Wales, one of the most useful websites on IP in the UK.  Both initiatives were launched when the present Principal of Bangor University held the Hodge chair of law at Swansea. 

Since it opened in 2018, the Menai Science Park has hosted a lot of talks and other events on IP. It has reached out to neighbouring centres of excellence such as Bangor Law School and the Pontio Centre. It has offered the most ambitious contribution from Wales to World Intellectual Property Day.  It plans the best ever webinar on "IP for Funding and Growth" between 12:30 and 14:00 on World Intellectual Property Day on 26 April 2021 with speakers from the Intellectual Property Office, the Welsh Government, Inngot, BIC Innovation, Knox Commercial Solicitors and IP Tax Solutions.  It hopes to follow that up with another seminar later in the year - with any luck in its boardroom or training room - on "IP for Scale-Up" with speakers from the nearest business angels networks and private equity investors.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article or any of the topics mentioned should contact me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact page.

An Inventors' Club for Northwest Wales?

Jane Lambert

"Ffiws" means, and is pronounced as, "Fuse" in English.  It is the name of a maker space with 3D printers, laser cutters and other digitally controlled equipment.  It is a partnership between Menter Môn, Gwynedd Council and several other agencies in North Wales.  Earlier this year I was invited to give a talk at its premises in Porthmadog.  Sadly, the visit had to be cancelled because of the pandemic but I still delivered the talk over Zoom and my slides can be downloaded from Slideshare if anyone is interested.

I think Ffiws is a great resource and the reason I mention it again now is that it has a base at the Menai Science Park (M-SParc).  According to the Ffiws page on the M-SParc website, its facilities are available to the park's tenants and members of the Enterprise hub.  Its equipment will also be taken on tour with M-SParc for demonstrations to, and possible use by, residents of the places M-SParc visits.  There is similar equipment at the Bangor FabLab in the Pontio Centre though that building is temporarily closed for public health reasons.

On 8 Sept 2020, the business and professional networks that have developed around M-SParc will be celebrated in the Ecosystem 2.0 Webinar. Each member of those networks has been allocated 3 minutes to talk about their work or interests.  I shall use mine to propose an inventors' club for North Wales to make use of Ffiws and FabLab and draw on the expertise of the Ecosystem.

The Business and IP Centre explained the need for an inventors' club in an article strap lined "Great ideas can change the world":

"whilst lots of us often spot the potential for a new product or piece of technology, the harsh realities of research and development, prototyping, manufacturing and distribution often mean that few of those ideas actually make it to market."

Those words apply at least as much to inventors, designers, makers and entrepreneurs in Northwest Wales as they do to London.   This is the British Library's solution:

"The Inventors’ Club has been established by the Business & IP Centre to give budding inventors the opportunity to network with others in the same boat, hear from speakers who have successfully commercialised their inventions, stay motivated and share insider hints, tips, expertise and experience. You’ll get feedback on your inventions in a safe, non-judgmental environment and also find out about how the Library’s extensive collection of business and commercial data can help you on your journey from someone with a great idea, to having a product on the market."

I set up and chaired inventors' clubs in Leeds, Liverpool and Sheffield and supported the ones in Blackburn and Manchester.   I can say from experience that they work.  In each of those cities, the clubs helped entrepreneurs and inventors to set up new businesses or license the manufacture and sale of their products to other companies. 

The Wessex Region of Technologists and Inventors in Southampton has published a useful article on Starting an Inventors Club on its website.  A Northwest Wales inventors' club is not something that can be run from outside.   Local people must want it enough to set it up and manage it.  If anybody in Northwest Wales is willing to take the initiative I shall place my expertise, experience and connections at his or her disposal.  Anybody wishing to discuss this proposal may call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.

How the Pontio Centre and M-SParc complement each other in the Social and Economic Development of Northwest Wales

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Jane Lambert

On 29 Nov 2019, I visited the Menai Science Park (M-SParc) to talk \about IP searches and understanding patent specifications.  In addition to our usual audience of local artists, business owners, entrepreneurs, inventors, makers and their professional advisers, we welcomed some graduate and undergraduate students from Bangor Law School. The audience was so large that we had to move the talk from the boardroom to the training room.  You will find a copy of my presentation at IP Database Searches and Understanding Specifications 30 Nov 2020.

After my talk, I held my usual clinic for local businesses and then drove across the Britannia Bridge to the Pontio Arts and Innovation Centre to watch Ballet Cymru's triple bill which I reviewed in  Ballet Cymru - Even Better than Last Year  6 Dec 2019 Terpsichore.   Before the show, I watched a performance by local schoolchildren in the foyer of the Pontio Centre. I wrote:

"Members of the company had introduced ballet to the students of a local primary school who presented an impressive curtain-raiser in the theatre's foyer. Alex Hallas, who tutored the children, told me that many including several boys had been inspired to take up ballet seriously. Throughout my life, I have found ballet to be an excellent mental as well as physical exercise. Probably I could not do my job well without it."

Yesterday, Ballet Cymru released a film of their work with those children which I have embedded above.

Like M-SParc, the Pontio Centre is an initiative of Bangor University and they complement each other.  While the science park provides facilities for new knowledge-based businesses the Pontio is a venue for the performing arts.  Both are essential for the economic and social regeneration of Northwest Wales.  The new businesses in or clustering around M-SParc already provide employment for the region's graduates and young professionals.  The arts will nourish their minds and spirits.

As I noted in IP and Dance  30 May 2019, intellectual property is important to the performing arts as it is is to science and technology.  While patents, trade secrecy, unregistered design right and copyright protect investment in research and development, copyright protects the work of artists, choreographers, composers, costume and set designers, dramatists, dramaturges and librettists and rights in performances the work of actors, ballerinas, musicians and singers.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article or any of the topics mentioned it should call my clerk Stephen on 07986 948267 or send me a message through my contact page. I shall gladly respond by phone, VoIP or email.

"From Plants to Bio-Based Products" Motivation and Mutual Learning Workshop in Aberystwyth

Round table discussions in full swing at our @biovoices workshop today on #challenges & #opportunities for development and #scale-up of #biobased products in Wales @ibers_aber @RhondaMinerva @wefowales #collaboratingwithindustry pic.twitter.com/JJzHWdNH5z

— BEACON Wales (@beaconwales) June 19, 2019

Jane Lambert

Last Wednesday I attended a workshop in the William Davies Hall at the Institute of  Biological, Environmental & Rural Sciences ("IBERS") of Aberystwyth University. The theme of the workshop was "From Plants to Bio-Based Products The Challenges to and Opportunities for Development and Scale-up in Wales." The event was hosted by Beacon Biorefining in association with Minerva Communications Ltd and the Biovoices consortium. Over 50 stakeholders participated in the event representing the Welsh government, the universities, the professions and various sectors of Welsh agriculture and industry.

The attendees were seated on a number of tables each with its own moderator and rapporteurs.  Each table was asked to discuss four topics:

• Challenges - What are the issues preventing progression and development of bio-based sectors and products in Wales?
• Opportunities - What are the opportunities for the development of bio-based sectors and products in Wales?
• Success Stories - UK companies and industrial approaches to develop the bioeconomy that have reached higher TRL levels and market acceleration, and
• How to progress the Welsh bio-based sector? Top level points to share.

Each topic was introduced by one or more short presentations.  Prof. Iain Donnison, the director of IBERS welcomed the audience and set out the aims of the workshop. Speakers from Aber instruments, Beacon and other companies introduced their businesses and the work that they do. Those speeches showed the breadth of the bio-economy in Wales. Rob Elias of Beacon spoke of the business opportunities provided by the bio-economy while Ian Holmes of Innovate UK spoke of the funding opportunities. Joe Gallagher, head of industrial biotechnology at IBERS, spoke about some of the industrial projects in this sector from British Sugar's plant at Wissington to even more impressive installations in China and the USA.

As the only intellectual property specialist in the room I stressed the importance of protecting investment in technology, branding and design. One of the challenges affecting the bio-sector as much as the rest of the economy is that EU trade marks and Community designs and plant varieties will cease to apply to the UK if the UK leaves the EU without a withdrawal agreement on 31 Oct 2019. At the very least, holders of EU trade marks, registered Community designs and plant varieties will have to register national trade marks, designs and plant varieties. Separate proceedings will be necessary in the UK and EU if any of those IP rights is infringed simultaneously here and in one or more EU member states.

When asked what message the sector should give to the new prime minister, I suggested that the new government should think yet again about how to reduce the risks and costs of obtaining and enforcing IP protection, particularly if the UK has to withdraw from the Unified Patent Court and the unitary patent. Finally, I added that the food and farming sectors will have to get used to a national scheme for protecting designations of origin and will have to reacquaint themselves with national plant variety protection.

On a general level, there was a lot of enthusiasm for clusters. I argued that clusters required more than geographical proximity and that they have to be based on natural affinity rather than the wishes of civil servants. I pointed to clusters in the UK that worked such as Silicon Roundabout in London and the Cambridge Cluster. Those were more than a few university spin-offs and start-ups who happened to be in the same area. They were a community of entrepreneurs, angels, private equity and specialist financial and professional services sharing similar aspirations and a common enterprise culture.

I have detected signs of that happening - albeit on a very small scale - around Bangor with the Menai Science Park and the Pontio Arts and Innovation Centre. I had learned about some remarkable business successes in that region such as Halen Môn. The proprietors of that enterprise had diversified from running a sea zoo as a tourist attraction to extracting salt from seawater, creating entirely new products like smoky water. In a sense, their enterprise had moved full circle as they were attracting tourists to their extraction facility.  I suggested that something similar might be happening around Aberystwyth and other regions of Wales.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article or the issues mentioned in it should call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.

IP and Dance

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Jane Lambert

I once heard Cerys Matthews describe Ballet Cymru as "the pride of Newport and the pride of Wales". I would not dissent except to add that that it is also the pride of the whole UK.  The reason I mention the company today is that it is about to perform Romeo a Juliet at the Riverfront Theatre in Newport. It will then visit Bangor, Brecon, Porthcawl and Milford Haven as well as venues in England.  The company will visit the Pontio Centre at Bangor on the 4 June.  I was at the Pontio the last time Ballet Cymru visited that venue and was almost as impressed by the centre as I was by the entertainment. Northwest Wales is beautiful and the M-SParc (the Menai Science Park) has created an environment for knowledge-based businesses to flourish but enterprising, innovative and creative people also need the arts. The Pontio delivers the best on stage and screen.

Ballet Cymru's production is a great show.  One of the best interpretations of Shakespeare's tragedy that I have seen.  It stands comparison with Birmingham Royal Ballet's, English National Ballet's, the Mariinsky's. Northern Ballet's, Scottish Ballet's and even the Royal Ballet's, all of which I know. I have seen and reviewed Ballet Cymru's Romeo a Juliet twice (see A Romeo and Juliet for Our Times 7 Nov 2016 and They're not from Chigwell - they're from a small Welsh Town called Newport 14 May 2013 Terpsichore).

Ballet Cymru is based in Rogerstone which is a township just outside Newport. It would be wrong to call it a suburb of Newport even though it is within that local authority's boundaries because the folk who live in that part of Wales have a strong sense of local identity. Caerleon is also within the city limits but it has existed since Roman times. One of Ballet Cymru's neighbours is the Intellectual Property Office  which describes itself as "the official UK government body responsible for intellectual property (IP) rights including patents, designs, trade marks and copyright."

Copyright protects the work of artists, broadcasters, composers, dramatists, filmmakers, publishers, recording studios other creative persons from unlicensed plagiarism and other exploitation.  Unlike patents, trade marks and registered designs, it does not have to be registered in the UK. The right comes into being automatically so long as the conditions for the subsistence of copyright are net. These are originality in the case of artistic, dramatic, literary and musical works and fixation and qualification in the case of all works. "Originality" used to mean independent skill and labour but is now intellectual creation.  "Fixation" means writing the work down or otherwise recording it. "Qualification" means the nationality or residence of the author or his employer or the place of publication. Basically, that includes a British national or resident or the national or resident of another country that provides reciprocal protection to the works of British authors under the Berne Convention or otherwise. 

Copyright is not necessarily infringed by making a similar work (see Davies v Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club (1986) Ltd [2019] EWHC 1252 (Ch) (15 May 2019) which I discussed in Copyright: Davies v Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club 25 May 2019 NIPC Law). It is infringed by copying or by doing in relation to the work one the other restrictive acts mentioned in s.16 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.  Similarity between two works and may suggest that there has been copying particularly when the author of the later work had the opportunity to see the earlier one but there may be many other reasons for such similarity such as functional exigency or sometimes mere coincidence.

A ballet is likely to consist of lots of copyright works.  There is the score for a start and then possibly the libretto.  Copyright can also subsist in choreography as a dramatic work so long as it is recorded in Benesch or some other notation (see my article Cracking Nuts - Copyright in Choreography 24 Nov 2011 IP Northwest).  The backdrop of the set and the designs of the fabric may well be original artistic works. There is also likely to be design right in the designs of the costumes and perhaps the props and sets. Finally, each and every one of the dancers and musicians has the right not to be filmed, taped or broadcast without consent under Part II of the 1988 Act (see Rights in Performances).

Actors tell each other to "break a leg" when they go on stage.  That is not really appropriate for dancers because they sometimes do.  They wish each other "toi, toi, toi", "chookas" or sometimes even "merde" instead.   Let's wish Ballet Cymru toi, toi, toi at the Riverfront tonight.   Do try to catch them on their tour of Wales if you possibly can.  If you want to discuss this article or copyright in general, call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.

Welsh University Start-Ups

Author J Newman & Co.
Source Wikipedia Aberystwyth University

 



















Jane Lambert

According to the BBC "universities in Wales are producing more graduate entrepreneurs than higher education generally across the UK(see Brian Meechan New business: Welsh universities' high start-up rate 2 May 2019). Having attended Pitch Perfect at M-SParc, having given talks there and at Aberystwyth University and having visited Bangor University's Pontio Arts and Innovation Centre, I am not surprised. Wales is a pleasant place to live, with fine research universities and, increasingly, a lively cultural scene.

But there is still more that can be done. Shortly before I spoke at the World IP Day celebration at MSParc I attended a presentation by Mo Aldalo, Tech Nation's Entrepreneur Engagement Manager for the North West at Sci-Tech Daresbury. I chatted with him briefly after his presentation, told him a little bit about M-SParc and its tenants and asked him whether Tech Nation would like to give a similar talk there. He replied that it would and I have followed that up with an email putting Mo in touch with M-SParc's management.

In my article Resources for Inventors and other Startups in Northwest Wales 5 Feb 2019 NIPC Inventors' Club I noted that "all the patent and trade mark attorneys in Wales practise in the south and mainly in and around Cardiff." The nearest ones appear to be in Chester and Liverpool and I shall try to persuade one of them to accompany me to Gaerwen when M-SParc holds another seminar on IP. Other speakers for the future could include a patent librarian to teach businesses owners and managers how to carry out simple patent, design and trade mark searches and an insurer specializing in IP insurance to talk about the various types of cover that are available.

Anyone wishing to discuss any of these topics should call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact page.