World Intellectual Property Day is an international festival of creativity, enterprise and innovation on or around 26 April of every year. The Menai Science Park ("M-SParc") has celebrated the event every year since 2019. Information about its previous celebrations can be found on the World Intellectual Property Day portal of this website.
Each year, the festivities revolve around a different theme. This year's theme is music. I wrote about that topic in World Intellectual Property Day 2025 - IP and Music: Feel the Beat of IPon 28 Dec 2024. As I noted in that article, "music is an art form in which Wales excels in every genre and at every level." As in previous years, M-SParc plans to hold a lunchtime seminar to celebrate the event. As 26 April falls on a weekend this year, the seminar will take place between 12:00 and 14:00 on 29 April 2025.
Gwenllian Owen, M-SParc's Innovation and Commercialization Officer, has put together a great programme of talks which will include contributions from
Emma Richards of the Intellectual Property Office on IP strategy,
Dr Steffan Thomas of Bangor University Business School on music copyright,
Copyright consultant Dafydd Roberts on copyright, publishing and performance.
John Hywel Morris of the Performing Right Society on collecting societies, and
Liam Kurmos of Busnes Cymru on copyright and artificial intelligence.
I shall chair the event as in previous years. We have invited a lot of distinguished guests from the performing arts, universities, legal profession in Wales and beyond. Everybody who attends will have an opportunity to say a few words from the floor.
This promises to be M-SParc's most ambitious celebration of World IP Day yet. If you happen to be in Northwest Wales on the day, you will be welcome to join us in person at M-SParc. Anyone, anywhere else in the world, can attend by video link. In either case, click this link and follow the simple registration instructions on the Eventbrite card.
Anyone wishing to discuss this article may call me on +44 (0)20 7404 5252 during the usual UK office hours or send me a message through my contact form at any other time.
M-SParc was hooked up to AberInnovation in Aberystwyth, Tramshed Tech in Barry, Cardiff, Newport and Swansea and the Guinness Enterprise Centre in Dublin. Individual speakers and attendees joined the event from Dublin, London and all parts of Wales. We had excellent presentations from John Glennane and Mike Hawkes of CapVentis, Patrick O'Connor of VRAI and James Bridgeman SC of the Irish Bar, There were also helpful interventions from Patricia McGovern of DFMG and Elinor Cavil of DLA Piper. A lot of information on the business and legal environments of the UK and Ireland was exchanged and new contacts were made.
Two new initiatives have arisen from the event. Tom Burke of Haia suggested a seminar on patenting software-implemented inventions. In Europe, unlike the United States, China, Japan and India, there is an express exclusion from patentability for:
"(a) discoveries, scientific theories and mathematical methods; (b) aesthetic creations; (c) schemes, rules and methods for performing mental acts, playing games or doing business, and programs for computers (d) presentations of information
........ as such."
The words "as such" are important because they allow software-implemented inventions to be implemented in certain circumstances. The courts and the European and national patent offices have developed elaborate rules as to when the exception applies and when it does not. Emily Roberts welcomed Tom's suggestion and asked me to consider how a seminar or conference on software patents could take place.
This is an issue that affects a lot of businesses in many different industries throughout Wales and beyond. It should have the widest possible coverage. In Yorkshire, intellectual property awareness is spread by an organization with the acronym TIPSY ("The Intellectual Property Society of Yorkshire"). There is a need in Wales for a similar body to bring together practitioners from both branches of the legal profession, patent and trade mark attorneys, legal scholars, government bodies and most importantly tenants of the Welsh science parks and other knowledge-based businesses.
Most IP specialists in Wales are to be found around the university cities. Because of the distances between those centres, a Wales IP society would rely on video conferencing rather than on face-to-face meetings. In that regard, the success of the Wales Enterprise Day seminar in connecting the science parks shows just what can be achieved by technology.
Over the Christmas holidays, I shall put together proposals for a 2 - 3 hour seminar on software patents to be addressed by leading experts in the field. I shall also draw up plans for a Wales IP society which would be based in M-SParc but would hold events in other places as and when requested, All meetings would be linked by video conference and recorded on YouTube,
Anyone wishing to discuss this article may call me on 020 7404 5252 during normal office hours or send me a message through my contact form,
This month's Innovation Brief from the Welsh Government's Economy. Treasury and Constitution Group contains three very interesting news items.
The first is that the Welsh Government is co-funding a third round of investment in greener and cleaner innovation through the Ford Low Carbon Vehicle Transformation Fund. Details of the funding were announced by the Minister, Mr Vaughan Gething, on 12 July 2023 (see the press release Economy Minister announces further £1m investment in green vehicle innovation), Application forms and guidance notes for the funding can be downloaded from the Ford Low Carbon Vehicle Transformation Fund now open!of the Business Wales website now.
The second item that attracted my attention was an invitation to nominate candidates for next year's St David Awards. Those awards are made to "exceptional people that make Wales great". There are 10 categories 9 of which are nominated by members of the public:
Business
Bravery
Community Spirit
Critical Worker (Key Worker)
Culture
Environment
Innovation, Science and Technology
Sport
Young Person
First Minister's Special Award.
This year's "Business" award went to Câr y Môr, Wales's first regenerative ocean farm, and its "Innovation Science and Technology" award to CanSense, a spin-out company from Swansea University which has developed diagnostic tests for bowel cancer. Online nomination forms can be completed here.
The final item is the CRISP23 Innovation Drumbeat webinar on 19 Sept 2023 on the latest support and funding opportunities for innovation, R&D funding as well as how to make these projects more effective.
Anybody who needs specialist advice on intellectual property or technology law can continue to access our pro bono initial advice and signposting service by completing the simple online form at the end of this article. Anyone wanting to discuss this post may call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.
Today is World Intellectual Property Day. Intellectual property is the collective name for the bundle of rights such as patents, trade marks, copyrights and registered designs that protect investment in brands, designs, technology and works of art and literature, World Intellectual Property Day is an international festival that falls on 26 April of every year. It marks the anniversary of the entry into force of the treaty that established the World Intellectual Property Organization, the UN specialist agency that coordinates international efforts to encourage, incentivize and reward artists, authors, broadcasters, designers, entrepreneurs, inventors, publishers and others.
Every year World Intellectual Property Day focuses on a different theme. This year it is "IP and Youth: Innovating for a Better Future." The Menai Science Park ("M-SParc") on Anglesey has interpreted that theme as an invitation to celebrate the creativity, enterprise and innovation of the young people of Wales.
Of course, none of this would be possible without entrepreneurs. To celebrate Welsh enterprise we have invited Tom Burke, co-founder and CEO of Haia to talk about how his company and its meetings platform. He has already made a video for the Level Up Accelerator.
M-SParc's main celebrations will be a webinar which I shall chair between 12:30 and 14:00 today. Our speakers will include Nia Roberts, David Young of Spaceport Snowdonia, Tom Burke of Haia and Darius James of Ballet Cymru and his brilliant young artists. There is still space on the call for those who want to attend it. All you have to do is click the green button on the Eventbrite page and Emily Roberts or Jamie Thomas will send you a link,
Yoruba is a language spoken by a large number of people in Nigeria and neighbouring states of West Africa. It is also the collective name of the people who speak that language. Between the 13th and 15th centuries, it was the home of a brilliant civilization centred on Ife that produced art of exceptional beauty an example of which appears in the photo above.
When it was discovered that an English company called Timbuktu Ltd, had registered the word YORUBA as a trade mark for a wide range of goods and services there was an outcry on Twitter. Many people of Yoruba heritage and others were hurt and I commented on their reaction in Traditional Knowledge and Trade Marksin NIPC News on 30 May 2021. A few days later the Intellectual Property Law Association of Nigeria invited me to speak at a webinar on the topic that they had organized on 2 Jan 2021 and I prepared The UK YORUBA Trade Markpresentation for the discussion.
Although the issues were different I was reminded of the Yoruba controversy when I read that the Welsh Language Commissioner had criticized the Intellectual Property Office for registering SNOWDONIA as a trade mark for a large English clothing retailer but not registering ERYRI for a small Welsh clothing manufacturer (see Language commissioner criticises decision to not grant Welsh trademark7 July 2021 Nation Cymru). The story was also pointed out to me at different times by two individuals who are prominent in Welsh economic development who could not be described as partisan or reactionary but I detected the same hurt in Wales as there had been in Nigeria.
I was asked for an explanation which I can't give as I am not privy to the discussions between any of the parties to the dispute and the Intellectual Property Office but I can state the law. One of the grounds upon which a trade mark can be refused registration under the Trade Marks Act 1994 is that it consists exclusively of signs or indications which may serve, in trade, to designate the geographical origin of goods or services (see s.3 (1) (c)). That may have been the ground upon which the Welsh clothing company was refused registration. However, that prohibition is not absolute. There is a proviso that a trade mark shall not be refused registration by virtue of paragraph (c) above if, before the date of application for registration, it had in fact acquired a distinctive character as a result of the use made of it.
I made a search of SNOWDONIA on the Trade Mark Registry website and found a very large number of registrations ranging from "Rubber Boots" by J.D. Williams & Company Limited from 8 April 1954 under trade mark number UK729050 to ice cream by Loseley (Manufacturing) Limited from 9 Oct 1998 under trade mark number UK2179272. Both J D Williams and Loseley are big companies that advertise their goods extensively so I guess that they would have persuaded the examiner that they fell within the proviso.
I also made a search of ERYRI and found that the word had been registered in combination with other words or devices ranging from Hafod Eryri for education and exhibition services all relating to National Parks cultural activities and the provision of food and drink and temporary accommodation by the Snowdonia National Park Authority to Eryri Snowdonia Gin.
In both Nigeria and Wales, it was felt that the law ought to be changed. Many in Nigeria and elsewhere have expressed the view that nobody should be allowed to register the name of a people, language and proud and ancient civilization as a trade mark. That would probably require a diplomatic conference. In Wales, there has been a drive to dispense with English names for Welsh geographical features even when they are over 1,000 years old. The registration of Snowdonia but not of Eryri has been seen by many as a gratuitous slight. While that is unlikely to have been the IPO's intention it is a sentiment of which legislators should take note. It is a topic that a Welsh law and innovation network could usefully consider.
Anyone wishing to discuss this article may call me during office hours on +44 (0)20 7404 5252 or send me a message through my contact form.
On 9 Feb 2021, I was the guest of the Menai Science Park's Enterprise Hub. I had been invited to give a talk entitled "What every Business in Wales should know about Intellectual Property" which I had previewed in my article of 7 Jan 2021. I had prepared some slides on the topic which I posted to Slideshare this morning.
Considering that we started the talk at 17:45 we had a good turnout. Our group would have been a very tight fit had we met in the M-SParc boardroom though there were not enough of us to have filled the training room. It was, therefore, the ideal size for a two-way discussion. I used the first few slides to start the discussion. Before long the questions came rolling in.
One of the most interesting questions was about licensing. An artist told me that she was familiar with the Creative Commons scheme but she really wanted to earn some money from her work. She asked whether there were any schemes like Creative Commons that generated revenue. I told her that there were indeed associations of copyright owners that licensed their work on standard terms and distributed the royalties or licence fees to their members. She could check out some of them but if none of them suited her she could instruct a lawyer to draw up a licence agreement.
Associations of copyright owners that license the use of their work on standard terms are called "collecting societies". Most people will have heard of the Performing Rights Society ("PRS") and the Mechanical Copyright Protection Society ("MCPS"). They may have seen their decals "PRS for music" in pubs, cafés and gyms. They draw up terms for the licensing of their members' works and visit premises that are likely to need their licences to collect the appropriate fees and royalties. Businesses that fail to cooperate may be sued. They instruct specialist solicitors and counsel and nearly always win their claims.
Many of these organizations have reciprocal arrangements with foreign collecting societies. They can help to protect IP owners' works and revenue not just in the UK but in many other markets around the world.
Although collecting societies and similar organizations are great for authors and designers they are not necessarily good for consumers and other users because they create monopolies and impose conditions that some consider to be unnecessarily restrictive. Licensing schemes are therefore regulated by Chapter VII of Part 1 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. Some users such as broadcasters and universities are also very powerful and they may challenge a licensing scheme under the Act. A body known as the Copyright Tribunal resolves disputes between copyright owners and users under Chapter VIII of Part 1. One case that might interest Welsh speaking readers is BBC v EOS 17 Feb 2021.
Sofie Roberts has invited me to speak at a seminar on licensing for the North Wales creative network on 19 April 2021. If Covid 19 infections reduce sufficiently to allow M-SParc to reopen it will be great to deliver this talk in person. If not, I shall deliver it over the internet. Anyone wanting to discuss this article or any point arising from it may call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message using my contact form.
I should first like to wish my readers in Wales and the rest of the world a Happy New Year. With continued lockdowns in Wales and many other parts of the world, there could not be a more depressing start. But the world will recover. New businesses offering new products and services will continue to be launched creating new highly paid jobs in Wales.
The success of those products and services will depend on their branding, design, technology and creativity. It is those attributes that I call "intellectual assets" that gives one business a competitive advantage over all others. A good idea by one competitor is likely to be adopted by others. To some extent that is a good thing and is to be encouraged because that is how science and society advance. But not if the effect is to deprive the person who dreamt up the idea and invested in developing it from benefiting from it. That would eventually stifle innovation and creativity.
It is obviously fair that an author designer. inventor or other intellectual asset creator who invests his or her time and money on developing a new product or service should recoup his or her investment and maybe earn a little extra on the side but consumers should not have to pay through the nose for the product or service forever. The laws that strike a balance between the interests of the author, designer, inventor or other creator and the public are known collectively as "intellectual property". Examplers of intellectual property rights are the 20-year monopoly of the manufacturer, sale and use of a new invention known as a "patent" or the lifetime plus 70 years protection against unauthorized copying of a work of art or literature called a "copyright".
One was on IP and funding similar to one that the Intellectual Property Office had run on 8 Dec 2020 entitled 'How to use your IP to unlock financial opportunities' to be presented on World Intellectual Property Day on 26 April 2021; and
The other was the changes to intellectual property law following the expiry on 31 Dec 2020 of the transition period provided by the agreement for the UK's withdrawal from the EU.
Emily replied that both topics seemed engaging to her but she asked: " Is there any you’d think more appropriate for a smaller or start-up business?"
I replied with the synopsis of a 40-minute talk that I had given many times before and which I shall give again on 9 Feb to the Bradford Network:
"What are your business's assets? Is it its good name, the experience of staff, quality of service, design or technology?
Are you making full use of those assets? Licensing revenue, collateral for borrowing and means of attracting investment
How can you secure those revenues? Trade marks for brands, patents for tech and design registration for the appearance of goods plus the free IP rights like copyright
How do you set about getting those rights? How long does it take and how much does it cost?
How do you face down challenges to your rights? Litigation and insurance
How do you budget?
What licensing and other revenues can you expect."
Obviously, a talk to entrepreneurs and other business owners in Northwest Wales will have to be different from the one I would give to a similar audience in Yorkshire because the economies and cultures of the two regions are quite different even though some issues and solutions are universal.
Emily liked the proposal and drafted an Eventbrite card for the talk which she will publish when she has chosen a date and time for the event. I for my part will draw up slides and a PDF handout designed specifically for businesses in Wales with such information as local advice and information services and useful websites that can be downloaded from Slideshare.
Anybody who wants to discuss this article or IP, in general, may call me during office hours on 020 7404 5252/ Like many other people I am working from home for the duration but our new phone system can forward your call to me wherever I happen to be at no extra cost. Alternatively, you can send me a message through my contact form. Incidentally, if you do call I would welcome a chance to practise my Welsh conversation. I am halfway through an internet training course in Welsh, there are not too many Welsh speakers nearby and I can't visit Wales until it is safe and lawful to do so.
Standard YouTube Licence Jane Lambert On Tuesday 30 June 2020 I gave a talk over Zoom for the Menai Science Park Enterprise Hub entitled Understanding Intellectual Property. I spoke for just over 30 minutes and then answered questions from the audience. I made 42 slides which Emily Roberts distributed to attendees after my talk. I have also uploaded them to Slideshare. As there is a limit to what a person who did not attend the talk can learn from a set of slides, I have summarized my talk in this article.
Intellectual property is the collective term for the bundle of laws that protect investment in branding,design, technology and creativity. Examples of those laws include patents for inventions and copyright for architecture, drawings, films, novels, plays and sound recordings. They reflect a bargain that the public makes with those engaged in creating and disseminating new products and services. In exchange for sharing their creativity and innovation with the public, the public grants them monopolies or exclusive rights that offer them opportunities to recoup their investment and perhaps a little bit more.
Those monopolies and exclusive rights can be very valuable, As the Intellectual Property Office explains in its animation IP BASICS: Is Intellectual Property important to my business?. they can be used to exploit a competitve advantage. They can also make money even when their owner is not making or selling anything because they may be licensed for periodic payments known as "royalties" or assigned for one-off payments.
On the other hand, as the animation also explains, intellectual property can be an existential threat to a business. That is because the remedies and penalties for intellectual property infringement are draconian. Another reason to take account of intellectual property.
There are often different ways of protecting an intellectual asset. For instance, the inventor of a new product may tell the world how to make or use his or her invention in return for a patent. Alternatively, he or she may keep it under wraps and require his or her employees to keep it secret. Not a bad option for a product that cannot easily be reverse-engineered such as a beverage. That is how Coca Cola has kept its recipe secret since the end of the 19th century and the monks of Chartreuse the recipe for their liqueur for centuries, But a drug company with a new medicine in competition with other major pharmaceutical companies around the world will probably want a patent in each of its main markets.
When applying for a patent it is a good idea to instruct a patent attorney. They can make the necessary searches and draft the application in such a way as to maximize protection but minimize the risk of a challenge to the patent's validity. The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys has produced a very good video entitled Why do I need a Patent Attorney?which shows how patent attorneys work. Many patent attorneys are also trade mark attorneys or work in partnership with trade mark attorneys. If a business owner wants to register a trade mark or design he or she would be well advised to consider a trade mark attorney, The Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys publishes a useful video on trade mark attorneys entitled How to navigate Intellectual Property Law.
I am often asked how much it costs to register a patent, trade mark or registered design. The answer depends on how much work the attorney has to do. There are also office fees and sometimes other costs such as translations or disbursements for other professionals such as barristers. Typically, a patent for the UK can cost anything up to £5,000 or even more if there are objections and hearings. Research published by the European Patent Office some years ago calculated that a 10 page patent with drawings for France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden and the UK renewed for up to 10 years could cost €30,000. A patent covering all those countries plus China, India, Japan, South Korea and the USA could easily amount to £100,000. Trade marks and registered designs are a lot cheaper. Well under £1,000 for a UK trade mark including searches, drafting a specification and correspondence with the examiner or third parties and even less for a design registration as there is no substantive examination.
Although some IP infringements are criminal offences, primary responsibility for enforcing IP rights lies with the IP owner. In Wales and England actions for IP infringement have to be brought in the Intellectual Property List of the Business and Property Courts of England and Wales. Claims for damages for patent or registered design infringement exceeding £500,000 are brought in the Patents Court which sits in the Rolls Building in London. Claims for infringements of other IP rights have to be brought in the Chancery Division of the High Court or a County Court hearing centre where there is also a Chancery district registry. The costs of litigating in Patents Court or the Chancery Division can be massive. Assessments of over £1 million are not uncommon. Claims under £500,000 can be brought in the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court where recoverable costs are limited to £50,000. There is a small claims track for claims under £10,000 where the recoverable costs are limited to a few hundred pounds. The Intellectual Property Office offers a cost-effective mediation service and examiners' opinions on patent validity and infringement disputes. Both the World Intellectual Property Organization and Nominet provide a cost-effective service for resolving domain name disputes.
Intellectual property claims are often excluded from legal liability insurance policies but there are a few brokers who specialize in IP insurance. Ian Wishart of Sybaris Special Risks gave a talk on the cover that are available for start-ups and SMEs when he visited M-SParc last September. Other sources of funding are members of the Association of Litigation Funders. In the USA and some other countries, it is possible to instruct lawyers on the understanding that they will be paid only if their client wins and that their fee will be a share of any damages that may be awarded.
The following websites provide further information on intellectual property the last two of which are my own:
There is a network of Business and Intellectual Property Centres based which offer a wide range of services and resources onsite and online. The largest of those centres is at the British Library in London. The British Library Business & IP Centre video provides a good introduction to the Centre's services. Anyone can join its Linkedin and Facebook groups and subscribe to its mailing lists but it is necessary to obtain a British Library reader's ticket to use its onsite services. The nearest Business and IP Centre to Anglesey is Liverpool Central Library and its services are described in the Business and IP Centre Liverpool video.
I finished by mentioning that the Menai Science Park is gathering the following network of professional advisors who can advise and assist its tenants and other businesses and creative or innovative individuals in Northwest Wales:
The first question I was asked after my talk was how to protect computer programs. I replied that copyright was the main way of preventing copying of the code itself and perhaps also features of a program such as its system, sequence and organization. Secret information relating to the design and development of the program such as comments in the source code might be protected from unauthorized use or disclosure by the law of confidence or under the Trade Secrets Directive. Although computer programs are not patentable as such it is sometimes possible to obtain a patent for a software-implemented invention. The next question was on how to protect a new travel service. I explained that services were the most difficult type of innovation to protect. A service provider could register his or her brand as a trade mark and copyright prevented copying of manuals, advertisements and other literature. Business information such as customers' names and addresses might be protected by the law of confidence and the Trade Secrets Directive. However, the basic idea of the service could not be monopolized. Anyone could offer a competing service so long as they did not lead the public to believe that their services were the same as the original service provider's. My third question was whether copyright prevented copying of products. I replied that copyright was once an indirect way of protecting new product designs but that had been abolished by the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988. Original designs - that is to say the shape and configuration of articles - are now protected by a new IP right called unregistered design right. The term of protection was much shorter: 15 years if nothing is made to the design or 10 years from the date of first marketing if articles were made to the design. In the last 5 years, anyone including an infringer could apply as of right for a licence to make the item.
The last question was on what to do if an infringer reposts a photo on his website without permission. I said that most actions in the Small Claims Track were claims of that kind (see Jane Lambert Damages Awards in the Small Claims Track17 June 2020 NIPC Law). The court could grant injunctions and award up to £10,000 in damages. It was not always necessary to instruct a lawyer for a small claim and the costs that could be awarded against an unsuccessful party were limited to issue fees, loss of earnings and travel expenses. Hearings of the Small Claims Track now took place in Business and Property Courts hearing centres outside London such as Liverpool and Cardiff.
Anyone wishing to discuss this topic should call my clerk Stephen Somerville on +44(0)7986 948267 or send me a message through my contact page.
As promised in Responding to COVID-19. What Makers Need to Know about IP. Webinar 15 April at 17:30, I presented my talk to the members of Ffiws over Zoom. It was the first time I had hosted and delivered a talk over Zoom so I was a little apprehensive. Most of the audience came from North Wales but we also welcomed Kate Hammer from London who runs a project called Shield to deliver PPE to front line workers. There were no technical glitches and we covered the ground. Readers can download my slides from Linkedin Slideshare.
On Tuesday 21 April at 14:00, I shall give a free 90-minute talk on patents. The talk will cover:
What is a patent?
The development of patent law from the Statute of Monopolies to the European Patent Convention and the Patents Act 1977;
Why governments grant patents: the inventor's bargain with the public;
Institutions: The Intellectual Property Office, the European Patent Office and the World Intellectual Property Organization;
Patentable inventions: novelty, inventive step, utility and excluded matter;
How to apply for a patent;
Specification;
Claims and how to interpret them;
Enforcement: the Patents Court, Intellectual Property Enterprise Court, Examiners' opinions;
Revocation: anticipation, obviousness, insufficiency and added matter;
M-SParc received a request in February for a discussion on open source software and hardware licensing. It had originally planned a seminar on the topic in Conwy but that is no longer possible in view of the social distancing and movement restrictions. Plans are in hand for an online seminar at which Carwyn Edwards and I have agreed to speak. Further plans will be announced shortly.
It is not possible for me to hold person to person IP clinics at M-SParc during the COVID-19 emergency but there is nothing to stop my holding them online. Should any business in Wales require advice or assistance on IP law during this period it should complete the form below. I may not know the answer to every question but I probably know someone who does. If a client needs a patent attorney I can direct him to her to Sean Thomas or show the client how to use the CIPA database if he or she wants a wider choice. I can do the same for clients who want advice on trade mark registration, company and commercial law, tax and product development. Anyone seeking such help should fill in the form below.
All over the United Kingdom, makers have responded magnificently to appeals for personal protection equipment and other devices by hospitals, care homes, general medical practitioners and essential workers in their localities and beyond.
A typical example is the efforts by businesses and individuals on Anglesey organized by M-SParc (the Menai Science Park) to make and distribute masks and shields to local health and social care workers (see PPE Masks/Shields on GoFundMe). Yesterday, I learned of a nationwide campaign called Shield to coordinate such efforts.
I also learned of a government-backed initiative for InnovateUK to invest £20 million in innovative responses to the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath (see InnovateUK to fund Innovative Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic12 April 2020 NIPC Inventors Club).
Investment on that kind of scale needs legal protection. While the priority must be to save lives and minimize infection, it is in the interests of care providers and patients that the rights of solution providers are recognized and respected. As I said in IP Services During the Emergency23 March 2020 NIPC Inventors Club, the laws that protect those rights known collectively as "intellectual property" have never been more important than they are now.
So. What are those rights?
Well, they include monopolies of the manufacture, importation, holding, marketing or distribution of products that are new, inventive and useful that do not fall within a number of statutory exclusions. These are known as patents and they can last up to 20 years. They cost several thousand pounds to obtain and even more to maintain and enforce.
A right that arises automatically in the UK is the right to prevent others from reproducing an original product design. That is called unregistered design right which essentially protects the shape or configuration of an article. It can last up to 10 years from the end of the year it is made available to the public though in the last 5 years anybody including an infringer can apply for a licence to make and distribute it as of right.
Unregistered design right is not to be confused with registered designs or unregistered Community designs which protect the appearance of products. Designs that are new and have individual character can be registered at the Intellectual Property Office for five renewable terms of 5 years each. Registration confers a monopoly of the manufacture, importation, stocking, marketing or sale of products that incorporate the design. Designs that could have been registered with the Intellectual Property Office as registered designs are protected from copying for up to 3 years throughout the EU and the UK for the transitional period as unregistered Community designs.
Software which could include programs for 3D printers and other digital fabrication technologies are literary works which may be protected from copying by copyright in the UK and most other countries for the life of the author plus 70 years. The right arises automatically as soon as the work is written down or otherwise recorded. Copyright cannot subsist in ideas as such. Only in the expression of ideas.
If anybody wants to learn more, I shall discuss these topics in a free webinar for makers on Wednesday 15 April 2020 at 17:30. If you want to sign up, please register here.
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