Online Pitch Perfect

Photographer Harvey Milligan Licence CC BY-SA 4.0

 

Jane Lambert

The buccaneering spirit of the ingenious and resourceful young men and women who presented their businesses at Pitch Perfect last night was symbolized by a magnificent sailing boat moored in the Menai Strait.  This was a friendly competition for funding along the lines of the terrestrial Pitch Perfect that I described in A Good Way to spend St David's Day 2 March 2019 and Pitch Perfect Number 2 7 June 2020. Each of the competitors presented his or her pitch in a short video showing the contestant on the deck of the vessel.

As in previous Pitch Perfect events, the contestants were questioned by three judges from the business support sector.  Members of the audience were also invited to ask supplementary questions.  There seemed to be a lot more contributions from the audience than on previous occasions.  That was probably because it was a lot easier to use the Zoom chat channel than slido   The event was chaired very efficiently by Emily Roberts who held each and every one of the contestants to his or her allotted time with grace and humour and still allowed for time for a tea break and one-to-one networking. 

Sadly, I missed a lot of the content, particularly at the beginning of the show.  That was because my internet connection went down several times.  Even when the connection was restored, the sound quality was far from perfect.  The English channel was barely audible and the sound quality of the Welsh channel was only slightly better.  Also, although I have started to learn Welsh there is a limit to how much of a conversation in a new language can be followed after just a few weeks of study.

Consequently, I can't tell you much about the individual entries or winners except that the winner of the cash prize was a very enterprising young woman and the winner of the non-cash prize which included Chamber membership and some professional services was a gentleman called Stephen.  I can name only one judge, Geraint, who (I think) works for the Development Bank of Wales.  There was a wide range of business ideas ranging from therapies to telecoms.  My own favourite was a scheme to market sheep's milk - possibly because I live in the Pennines (formerly part of the Old North) which like the current North of Wales is sheep rearing country.  Someone in the chat channel wrote "I like your logo" in Welsh in the chat channel.  Indeed, several of the contestants received similar comments.

A good logo or brand name can become the most valuable asset of a business and the best way of preserving that asset is to register it as a trade mark.  Although it is probably quicker, safer and more convenient to instruct a trade mark attorney to act for you, it is quite possible for a reasonably intelligent and educated business owner to register a mark without professional intervention.  If you want to instruct a trade mark attorney the best place to start is the website of the Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys ("CITMA"). A good attorney will make a search, advise you on registrability, draft and file an application that is likely to be accepted and shepherd you pay any objections from the examiner or third parties for just a few hundred pounds.  That fee will usually include searches and the Intellectual Property Office's fees.

The saving if you attempt to apply by yourself is only a few hundred pounds,  If you receive an objection from the examiner or a third party you would lose that cost-saving in a few rounds of correspondence and considerably more still if there were to be a hearing.  The key to a successful application is a thorough search and I gave a presentation on searches last November (see IP Database Searches and Understanding Specifications  30 Nov 2020 NIPC Wales).  You will find a lot of information on the IPO, CTTMA and my NIPC Branding and you can always contact me for a pro bono chat if you get stuck.

I can be contacted on 020 7404 5252 during normal business hours or through my contact form at all other times.

Opportunities for Launching New North Welsh Businesses on 24 Sept 2020

Author Tim Felce (Airwolfhound) Licence CC BY-SA 2.0 Source Wikipedia Anglesey

 

Jane Lambert

Pitch Perfect is an opportunity for entrepreneurs in Northwest Wales to present their business ideas to a friendly audience and compete for funding contributed by the audience and local investors.  It usually takes place at the Menai Science Park (M-SParc).  I have attended two of those events and wrote about them in A Good Way to spend St David's Day 2 March 2020 IP Northwest and Pitch Perfect No 2 7 June 2019. Another Pitch Perfect is to tale place on 24 Sept 2020 between 17:00 and 19:00 but this one will take place online.   If you want to attend you can register through Eventbrite.

Although I am not sure whether the two events are connected, another online meeting will take place that same day between 09:00 to 10:00 to set up a North Wales Start-Up Club.   In  An Inventors' Club for Northwest Wales? 25 Aug 2020, I wrote about the British Library's Business Club in London:

"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."

I added:

"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."

Although it is called a startup club and not an inventors' club, North Wales Start-Up Club seems to be exactly what I had in mind.   I renewed my offer of help to the West Cheshire and North Wales Chamber of Commerce in a phone call last week.

Now someone like me can't set up and run a local business self-help group remotely but I can and do assist by giving talks, finding speakers and setting up free clinics or one-to-one consultations by phone or Zoom while the pandemic continues or in person afterwards.  

Any entrepreneur, inventor, developer, artist, designer or business owner in Northwest Wales who wants a free consultation on IP or technology law should make an appointment by calling me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or filling out the following form. 

Fill out my online 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.

Helping Wales's Home Grown Inventors

Sir William Grove, Inventor

Author Lock & Whitfield
Source Wikipedia William Robert Grove

Jane Lambert

On the Inspiration page of its website, M-SParc (the Menai Science Park) notes that "Wales is home to some of the best scientists in the world".  Many such as Lyn Evans who was project leader of the large hadron collider at CERN are employed by organizations in the public or private sectors but there are also many others in all walks of life who simply have good ideas.

One such was Willian Robert Grove whose photo appears above.  He was a prolific inventor whose inventions include the gas voltaic battery which was the forerunner of the fuel cell, a technology upon which the world is likely to rely increasingly if it is to meet its carbon reduction targets. Like me, Grove was a barrister whose practice included patents. There are still plenty of inventors like Grove today and the government seeks to harness their potential in its industrial strategy (see "Harnessing the Potential of the UK's Home Grown Inventors" - The Government's Proposed Industrial Strategy 24 Jan 2017).

Such inventors do not get an easy time for all sorts of reasons.  It is one thing to create a new product or process but quite another to market it.  If an inventor tries to make and market his or her invention he or she has to go into business which is impossible for many.  Entrepreneurship and invention do not always - in my experience, rarely - go together.  If an inventor tries to license the invention to an established business he or she meets not invented here scepticism for he or she is, by definition, an outsider.

So what can private inventors do to lower the odds against success?  One thing that inventors in other parts of the UK have done is to learn from each other.  Inventors in Northwest England have formed Ideas North West which described itself as  "a membership group of Inventors based in the North West of England" with the aim of helping each other exploit their ideas for new products or services in order to gain commercial success.  They have their own invention promotion company called Ideas North North West Limited which appears to have helped several local inventors.

According to the Wessex Round Table of Inventors, there are similar groups in most parts of the United Kingdom though it seems none for Wales as yet.  There is already a lot of support available for inventors in North Wales around M-SParc and the Pontio FabLab as events like Pitch Perfect and last week's World IP Day celebrations show.  Those of us who took part in last week's seminar would like to build up a comprehensive support network like those provided by the British Library in London and Business and IP Centres in other English cities.  There will soon be another science park in Aberystwyth where similar networks could be developed and, of course, there is the Intellectual Property Office in Newport which already hosts regular patent clinics.

if, while such networks are being developed, any inventor needs help with patenting, licensing, enforcement or other legal issues or signposting to other services such as angels, product design engineers, IP tax experts and others, he or she should call me during office hours on 020 7404 5252 or send me a message through my contact page. 

Welcome to NIPC Wales

Jane Lambert

When on holiday in Beaumaris last August I amused my companion by showing her the village in Anglesey with the 58 letter name.  Just to the northwest of that location near the entrance to the A5 dual carriageway, I noticed a building that described itself as the Menai Science Park or M-SParc. I wrote about it in M-SParc, Anglesey's Science Park 28 Aug 2018 NIPC News.

I contacted the science park after I returned from holiday.   They invited me to the Angeleeesy Business Festival which took place on 9 and 10 Oct 2018.  I attended the second day of the festival and wrote about it in Anglesey and the Fourth Industrial Revolution 12 Oct 2018 NIPC News.  While I was there I met Selwyn Owen of Beacon Biorefining and Jayne Jones of Cywain.

Beacon and Cywain held a workshop on sustainable packaging and waste management in Bangor on 29 Jan 2019 which Jayne and Selwyn invited me to address.  Several members of the audience approached me after my talk and asked for advice on issues affecting their businesses.  These were issues that arise frequently at my clinics at Barnsley and Sheffield and I was able to answer them quickly and easily.

At the beginning of this month, I returned to M-SParc to celebrate the park's first anniversary, which happened to coincide with St David's day, with the Pitch Perfect pitching event (see A Good Way to spend St David's Day 2 March 2019 NIPC News). Several of the candidates requested my advice on various IP issues which again I was able to supply quickly and easily.

I received more invitations to speak following those visits.   Yesterday I was in Aberystwyth for another talk on IP and sustainable packaging and waste management (the slides for which are on SlideShare).  On 22 March 2019, I shall deliver a half-day seminar on IP rights at the Beacon Enterprise Centre in Llanelli for Business Wales.

Throughout my career, I have specialized in advising and representing startups and other small businesses on IP, technology, media and competition law.  I set up and chaired for many years the Leeds, Liverpool and Sheffield Inventors Clubs.   I have run pro bono IP clinics in Barnsley, London and other cities for many years.   I wrote Enforcing Intellectual Property Rights which was published by Informa in 2009. 

I communicate with my clients and potential clients in English regions through blogs such as IP  Yorkshire. Now that I am doing more work in Wales I have set up this blog to discuss issues that are likely to be of particular interest to entrepreneurs, innovators and creative businesses in Wales. They will include news of forthcoming talks, clinics, disputes involving Welsh businesses and issues that arise frequently in clinics.

I hope this will be useful,    Should anyone wish to contact me, he or she can call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form,