NIPC News

IP Valuation Article  Hidden Value - A Study of the UK Valuation Market   30 Sep 2017 The announcement of the appointment of Metis Partners to market Barratts' intellectual property occurred a few days after the publication of Martin Brassell and Jackie Maguire's study of the British IP valuation industry. The study was commissioned by the IPO to help it understand why businesses do not value their IP rights more often. The authors do not address that question directly but rather preliminary questions on the size of the market and the scope for its expansion. It is an interesting and useful enquiry accompanied by an even more useful and interesting appendix on methodology. The report prompted my own thoughts on valuation and whether it is useful. While agreeing that it can be useful I point out that it is not fully developed and that there is a lot of muddled thinking as to how IP works, I can understand businesses' reluctance to use it. However, that should change...

Jane Lambert The appointment of Metis Partners to market the intellectual property of W. Barratt & Co. Ltd. which I mentioned in IP Yorkshire yesterday (see  Bradford Footwear Distributor's Intellectual Property Sale   29 Sept 2017 IP Yorks) occurred a few days after the publication of Hidden Value: A study of the UK IP Valuation Market   by the Intelectual Property Office .   This was a report by  Martin Brassell  and  Jackie Maguire  which was commissioned by the IPO to understand why companies do not consider the hidden financial value of their intangible assets and particularly intellectual property on a more routine basis. The research does not appear to answer that question directly but rather a number of preliminary questions:- Who are the main suppliers of IP valuation services and how they operate? Why businesses seek IP valuation services? Whether there are any barriers to the development of a ...

Jane Lambert The life sciences industry makes a lot of work for my branch of the legal services industry so when Professor Sir John Bell, the Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford , delivered a report to the government on a strategy for life sciences, we were full of anticipation.  The life sciences industry was one of a handful of sectors that were identified as engines of growth in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy's green paper,  Building our Industrial Strategy , earlier this year (see page 97) and Sir John's work was specifically welcomed in that consultation document (see pages 102 and 105). Sir John has now delivered his report,  Life Sciences Industrial Strategy – A report to the Government from the life sciences sector , at the Institute of Translational Medicine  of the University of Birmingham in the presence of Greg Clark MP, Secretary of State for Business and Jeremy Hunt MP, Secretary of State ...

Author Rob984 Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International Source Wikipedia Jane Lambert Last week I answered the following question from Will Roebuck , one of my readers: "What do start-up entrepreneurs need to look for in a good IP lawyer?"  I replied: "Probably the most useful professional adviser will be one who can help you to use IP to meet your business objectives. That is known as " IP strategy" which the American lawyer Jackie Hutter described as the combination of business acumen with IP knowledge to provide business focused advice (see Hutter What is an IP Strategist? IP Asset Maximizer Blog)." My article elicited a number of comments including this one from Julian Potter of WP Thomson: "hi Jane, I am interested in the idea that IP strategists are a new type of adviser. It is certainly the case that in recent years one has seen a number of individuals and organisations refers to themse...

Will Roebuck Jane Lambert In response to my article on patent revocation , Will Roebuck wrote: "Thanks for posting Jane - given that we want to attract more (and probably much younger) business entrepreneurs into UK, post Brexit (particularly in the Northern Powerhouse region) what's your recommended advice for choosing the best patent/IP legal expert? What do start-up entrepreneurs need to look for in a good IP lawyer?" Here is my reply.  Will, this is for you. The first thing to say is that intellectual property is far too important to be left to IP lawyers and patent and trade mark attorneys. IP should be on the curriculum of every business school in the country. Every entrepreneur, investor, business owner and manager should know how the law protects his or her brands , designs, technology and creative output and how to leverage such protection for the benefit of his or her business. If you do not already have such knowledge and experie...

Entrance to Trinity College, Cambridge © 2017 Gita Mistry: all rights reserved Licensed with kind permission of the author Jane Lambert I spent last week at the  Cambridge IP Law Summer School  at Downing College.   It was a rare opportunity to listen to some of the leading practitioners in intellectual property law in beautiful surroundings in the company of some very bright young men and women from around the world.  It was also an opportunity to catch up with several old acquaintances whom I had met through the International Bar Association, Licensing Executives Society or World Intellectual Property Organization. The persons who attended the course came from a variety of backgrounds. Some were recently qualified associates from several leading law firms. A few were trainees.  One came from a major pharmaceutical company.  Another worked in-house. There were several civil servants. One attendee ca...

Photo Adrian Pingstone Reproduction kindly licensed by the author Source Wikipedia Jane Lambert The IPO  has published details of the  China IP Roadshow 2017  when our IP attaché, Tom Duke,  will tour Scotland and the North of England between 18 and 20 Sept. My chambers are assisting with the Yorkshire leg of his tour and I can tell you that there have been a lot of enquiries and we are already into double figures with the bookings. If you want to attend the Leeds event call my clerk Steve on 020 7404 5252 or send him an email  without delay. Most British businesses do very well in China but things can go wrong sometimes. When they do, they can have repercussions here. That is where I come in.  Here are some of the problems that occasionally arise: The British trade mark of a company that applies to register that mark in China is opposed, invalidated or revoked; A company that imports goods from China for distribution in the UK fi...