Daresbury's New HealthTec Cluster











Jane Lambert

Immediately after last Friday's breakfast meeting at Daresbury Sci-Tech, I attended an interactive session with Phil Carvil, the cluster's development manager, exploring how the Daresbury HeathTec Cluster can work with innovators and industry. The official launch had taken place the previous day. Phil began his talk by asking who had attended it. 

Phil explained that the cluster aims to bring together business, academics and the public sector in the North of England. He reminded us that there are 28 universities and more than 1,200 life science companies employing over 50,000 people in the region.  Some 32 of those companies are based in Daresbury itself.

The Cluster's vision is set out in the leaflet Connecting Capabilities.  It is the second health technology cluster in the UK, the first being at Harwell in Oxfordshire. Phil hoped that the two networks would complement each other. He expected businesses on one campus to find partners for projects and ventures in the other.

There were several questions from the floor. Some were quite technical about sterilization facilities. Others more general about accelerators. At that point, John Leake intervened to say that Daresbury had already hosted two very successful accelerator projects and could easily run more. An American gentleman in the front row suggested dedicated liaison officers to work with companies on campus. Phil and John nodded their heads.

At that point, I had to leave the room to take a call from London but that gentleman was still talking when I came back. He opined that the Daresbury cluster was very precious and unique. That aroused my curiosity and prompted me to ask him for specifics. He spoke about geographical proximity compared to the USA where distances are so huge. "True, but I seem to remember that they had phones when I was at graduate school there in the 1970s," I said to myself. "How about a massive purchaser of healthcare services in the NHS?" I put to him. He did not demur.

I shall follow the progress of the Cluster with interest and blog about it from time to time in IP Northwest. There are bound to be lots of legal issues in collaboration agreements, title to intellectual property and maybe even a few disputes that I can help to resolve.  Should anybody wish to talk about any of those issues, call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact page.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UPC Court Dress

Image
  Jane Lambert The robes to be worn by the judges of the Court of First Instance and Court of Appeal of the Unified Patent Court are quite fetching.  Photos of those robes are to be found in the Annexes to the Presidium Decision of the Dress Code of the Unified Patent Court  of 4 April 2023 which came into force yesterday, Art 1 of the Decision requires judges of the Court of First Instance to wear a gown as shown and described in Annex I,  It is a black and blue garment that extends halfway to the lower leg. The outer fabric of the gown is made from black, 100% ultra-fine Merino virgin wool. The trim on the sleeves and lapels is dark blue and made from 100% fine cotton velvet. There is contrasting piping between the trim and outer fabric in dark blue.  The sleeves and back are pleated.  The chest and back are lined with paisley royal blue. A note that is not absolutely clear refers to "buttons below a concealed button placket,"  Gentlemen are expected to wear a white shirt a
Read more

Latest Developments in Intellectual Property Law

Image
Gray's Inn Square Author Chensiyuan   Licence CC BY-SA 3.0   Source Wikimedia Commons Jane Lambert On 18 Sept 2023, I shall be one of the speakers at IP Update, a seminar on some of the latest developments in intellectual property law which will take place between 14:00 and 17:00 in my chambers at 4-5 Gray's Inn  Square . The other speakers will be James Bridgeman SC , who will also chair the seminar, Mark Engelman , Christian Panayi  and Elizabeth Nicholls .  For intellectual property specialists in the Midlands, we shall repeat the seminar on 25 Sept between 14:00 and 17:00 in our Birmingham premises at 2 Snow Hill.   Should those talks go well, we shall repeat them in Manchester and the other cities with  Business and Property Courts . Attendees will be invited to arrive between 13:30 and 14:00 for registration and networking over tea or coffee.  They can reserve their places by calling our senior clerk, Emily Martin, on 020 7404 5252 or registering on Eventbrite.  Tickets
Read more

Patent Law Update

Image
Howard Building Author TheWub   Licence CC BY-SA 3.0   Source Wikimedia Commons   Jane Lambert Except for 2020 when the Informa IP Law Simmer Schoo l took place online and 2021 when it was held in December,  I have chaired the session on patent law and delivered a talk on FRAND  at the Howard Building in Downing College Cambridge for the last 5 years.  I shall do so again this year between the 7 and 11 Aug 2023.  There is an excellent programme  of talks from distinguished speakers .  Attendees are housed in college and fun s ocial events are arranged every night .  Anyone wishing to attend the course can book here . A lot has happened in my topic since last year.   There has been Mr Justice Mellor's judgment in  I Interdigital Technology Corp and others v Lenovo Group Ltd and others [2023] EWHC 539 (Pat) on 16 March 2023.  That was the second time that an English court had been called upon to determine what terms were fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory ("FRAND")
Read more