BBC Radio's Five Live Investigates reports on bogus patent and trade mark fee demands - Sunday 19th Feb 12: 9.00-10.00 pm
Five Live Investigates will report on scammers who send out "misleading and official-looking missives to trade mark and patent owners, luring them into paying handsome sums of money for the privilege of renewing their rights or for listings in commercially valueless registers and directories."
The item will be in the programme being aired on Radio 5 at 9.00 - 10.00 pm on Sunday 19th Feb, probably about 9.30 pm.
Both the patent and trade mark representative bodies CIPA and ITMA respectively have submitted comments for inclusion in the report.
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UK Parliament to debate the contribution of IP to economic growth - 7 Feb 12: 9.30am
Peter Wishart M.P. has secured a further Private Members' parliamentary debate on IP issues in Westminster Hall on 7 Feb 2012 starting at 9.30am - this time focusing on the contribution of IP to economic growth. In July 2011 he had succeeded in getting IP issues arising from the Hargreaves Report (see below) debated in Parliament.
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Europe wide unitary patent system almost agreed - well not quite!!! (6 dec 11 - updated jan 12)
The EU Competitiveness Council which met in Brussels early December 2011 came close to agreeing the substantive elements (including translation arrangements) of the two new regulations and international convention necessary to establish a new single unitary EU wide patent and a corresponding new unitary patent court (UPC). The proposals have been agreed in principle with the EU Parliament but still need its formal approval expected in early 2012. However there were some important remaining issue still to be resolved such as the location for the central division of the UPC - see item below - and how the UPC would operate and whether sections on infringement will be included in the regulations establishing the unitary patent system. As a result the Polish Presidency decided it was in fact unable to conclude matters and it is now likely that this will happen during the Danish Presidency.
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European Patents Court location - a tale of two cities: London or Munich (30 nov 11)
 
London and Munich are competiting to be the base for the proposed new European Patents Court. The UK government is shortly due to agree a new European system on patent law. A new treaty will set up a Unitary Patents Court to consider patent cases across Europe. Germany has proposed that the Central Division of the court should be located in Munich (where the European Patent Office is already located). High-value additional work and revenue will inevitably flow to law firms and ancillary businesses based in the city chosen for the court’s Central Division.
The EU’s Polish current Presidency wants to get the main outlines of this treaty agreed in early December and the incoming Danish Presidency has already announced its intention to see the Treaty itself signed in June 2012.
The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) and other IP professional groups are lobbying the UK government hard in favour of London as location for the new court. CIPA claims that there is a lot at stake here - for the UK economy, the UK’s role in Europe and for British businesses:
London is the best place to have the new European Patent Court. To have the Court in Germany would be bad for the EU and terrible for the interests of UK businesses.
According to the Hargreaves report earlier this year, the proposed European Unitary Patent would help SMEs and promote growth (an extra £2.1B p.a. in 2020 for the UK). But if the new court went to Germany, it would instead increase costs for UK companies. They could find themselves having to defend their patents in a German court.
At the moment, the UK has a reputation as a good place to register and defend patents. London’s courts are second to none and, unlike most of the rest of Europe, they have specialist patent judges. All of this will be jeopardised unless the government changes its mind and starts to work at getting the new court brought to London.
The German system of judging patent matters (infringement first and invalidity second), in separate trials, means that patentees may be able to enforce invalid patents, halting legitimate new businesses. This would encourage 'patent trolls' in Europe.
Read more in the Guardian article here
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European Court rules against patents on embryonic stem cells (18 oct 11)
 Today the European Court of Justice ruled that inventions involving stem cells derived from human embryos could not be patented. The ruling could result in researchers in the EU being disadvantaged over their colleagues in the USA where the law has recently been changed to remove a former ban on patenting embryonic stem cells. In maintaining the earlier opinion of the Advocate General in the case brought by Greenpeace against a German patent held by Professor Oliver Brüstle, a leading investigator of the use of stem cells to treat conditions involving neural defects such as Parkinson’s disease, the Court stated that:
A process which involves removal of a stem cell from a human embryo at the blastocyst stage, entailing the destruction of that embryo, cannot be patented.
and further that:
The concept of ‘human embryo’ must be understood in a wide sense
The ruling is likely to have wide impact since companies are unlikely to be willing to invest in costly development and clinical evaluation if they are not able to obtain patent protection for the underlying inventions.
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US finally overhauls its patent law (16 sep 11)
 After many years of deliberation in the US Congress of numerous draft bills and several false starts, President Obama finally signed the "America Invents Act" into law today, introducing the biggest set of changes to U.S. patent law since 1952. This followed the approval by the US Senate on Sep 8 by a 89-9 vote of the patent reform bill HR1249 passed in June by the House of Representatives.
The US will now move from the "first to invent" to the "first to file" system for granting patents, create two new ways to challenge granted patents and give the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) the power to set its own patent fees, although any excess will be subject to allocation through a Congressional Committee.
read more here in today's White House Press release and the earlier Wall Street Journal account
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 Copyright for performers and sound recordings extended by 20 years in the EU (12 sep 11)
The European Parliament today adopted a Directive to extend the term of protection for performers and sound recordings to 70 years. The aim of the directive is to bring performers’ protection more into line with that already given to authors, that is for 70 years after their death. In a statement, Commissioner Michel Barnier said:
"Today's decision to increase the term of protection for musicians' copyright from 50 to 70 years will make a real difference for performers".
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IP law set to change in the UK (3 aug 11)
 IP laws in the UK are set to undergo significant change, especially to copyright so that it is adapted to the needs and realities of the digital age. The UK Government today announced its response to the independent review of IP and Growth it commissioned by Prof. Ian Hargreaves. In a presentation at the British Library, Government Ministers announced that they accepted all ten of the recommendations in the Hargreaves report and will be consulting soon on their implementation. Also, in a letter to stakeholders, the Business Innovation and Skills Minister, Vince Cable, stated:
The Government's goal is to have measures in place by the end of this Parliament that will realise the Review's vision and deliver real value to the UK economy, and to the creators and users of IP.
A White Paper setting out the Government's plans is promised for Spring 2012. In addition to changes to copyright licensing and exceptions for research and limited private copying, attention is being focused on assessing the impact of so-called "patent thickets" as barriers to enter technology sectors, especially for SMEs.
At the same time as responding to the Hargreaves review, the UK Government has also published its international IP strategy and its new strategy for dealing with IP crime.
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Dragons' Den and intellectual property! 
It’s that time of year again - Yes, a new series of BBC's Dragons' Den is about to hit our screens once more. Dragons' Den is all about everyday inventors, designers, creators or entrepreneurs pitching their innovative business ideas to a panel of successful investors, AKA the Dragons. The hour-long show is on BBC Two and BBC HD every Sunday at 21:00 from 31 July.
The UK Intellectual Property Office in conjunction with the BBC has set up a special page on its website linking to the programme and for the coming weeks, its experts will blog about the IP that's spotted in each episode of the BBC's Dragons' Den. You will also find there information about the UK IPO, what it does and the range of tools, services, events and guides it provides to help you and your business with its intellectual property.
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Question Time for IP Minister Baroness Wilcox at IPAN's July meeting
At IPAN’s full meeting on 13 July, Baroness Wilcox opened the Question Time-style session by quickly updating IPAN’s members on the Hargreaves review of intellectual property. She went on to inform the meeting about some of the IPO’s recent initiatives:
– training business advisers
– running the ‘Cracking Ideas’ competition for schoolchildren
– publishing new guidance notes for university IP.
The IP Minister then handled a series of questions from the convenors of IPAN’s three working groups:
Dids Macdonald, of IPAN’s Parliamentary Group, raised the value of IPAN and its Issue Briefs as a balanced source of expert information on IP matters. She also asked the Minister about the possibility of a fast track small claims court to deal with the growing number of infringements of their designs faced by micro-businesses and SMEs.
Professor Ruth Soetendorp, of IPAN’s Education Group, stressed that IP education needed to be improved at undergraduate level, especially in non-law departments. She also asked for the minister’s support for more research into IP education among undergraduates - tomorrows’ entrepreneurs and business leaders.
John Ogier, of IPAN’s Finance and Economic Impact group, asked for an opportunity to discuss the government’s planned response to the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property. He also asked what steps the government could take with the finance sector and industry to develop standards for IP valuation, securitisation and financing.
Maxine Horn, of IPAN member Creative Barcode, also asked a question about SMEs and micro businesses who are turning to ‘crowd-sourcing’ as a way of raising early-stage capital. She pointed out that this had implications for disclosure and could jeopardise IP rights, asking the Minister for her thoughts on this risk, and whether anything could be done at government level to mitigate it.
26th April 2012 - a date for your diary!
IPAN will hold its first AGM (as a company limited by guarantee) on 26 April 2012 – World IP Day. Lady Wilcox has provisionally accepted IPAN’s invitation to be one of the keynote speakers at an IP forum on the same day, to be held close to Parliament in Westminster.
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new IP asset management guide for universities available (19 may 11)
The new guide provides advice and information to universities to help them understand how they can best use their institution's Intellectual Property. This can be an invention, trade mark, original design or the application of a good idea.
Income generated through commercial use of IP rights can be worth millions of pounds. In 2009/10 £84 million was generated directly from IP at Universities.
Launching the Guide,Baroness Wilcox, the UK Minister for Intellectual Property said:
"The guide will help Universities maximise the benefits of their intellectual assets, which in turn will support the economic growth of the UK. The Government is committed to providing the best opportunities for young inventors, providing them with a strong basis on which they can turn their ideas in reality.
"It is now more important than ever for University leaders to think strategically about how to best to protect and effectively use their intellectual assets. This guide will help each institution seize the opportunity to use their Intellectual Property to secure maximum benefit for the economy and society."
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independent report into IP and growth in the UK by Prof. Hargreaves published (18 may 11)
Changes to Intellectual Property systems could add up to £7.9 billion to the UK’s economy, the first report looking at how it can drive growth said today. The publication of Digital Opportunity follows a six-month independent review of IP and Growth, led by Professor Ian Hargreaves. He was asked to consider how the national and international IP system can best work to promote innovation and growth.
The key recommendations are:
- the UK should have a "Digital Copyright Exchange": a digital market place where licences in copyright content can be readily bought and sold, a sort of online copyright shop.
- the Government should legislate to permit access to orphan works, where the owner cannot be traced. For example some copyrighted works remain locked away because their authors either aren’t known or can’t be traced to give permission for use. In the worst cases, where one owner cannot be located - just one out of hundreds contained in a film or TV programme - they can effectively hold the interests of others to ransom as it becomes a criminal offence to exploit that work commercially.
- updating what it is lawful to copy. This includes copying for private purposes (such as shifting music from a laptop to an mp3 player) and copying which does not conflict with the core aims of copyright – for example, digital copying of medical and other journals for computerised analysis in research. For example an academic working on malaria cannot draw on previous research through data mining because they cannot get permission to copy the datasets they need to mine.
- the Government’s IP policy decisions need to be more closely based on economic evidence and should pay more attention to the impact on non-rights holders and consumers;
- changes to the Intellectual Property Office’s (IPO) powers to enable it to help the IP framework adapt to future economic and technological change
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New digital tracker launched to help combat IP theft (april 11)
To coincide with World IP Day on April 26th ACID has launched a simple, cost effective digital method of tracking delivery of IP led and confidential information. It is a natural electronic addition to the already successful ACID Design Data Bank which holds over 350,000 copies of unregistered designs. All too often, design ideas and new product designs are stolen at the vulnerable stage of sending them to third parties.
ACID ambassador and designer Sebastian Conran, commenting on the ACID IP Tracker said:
"An unintended consequence of digital technology is the dissemination & theft of identities, ideas and designs... Proving ownership of IP is the foundation of protecting it; and the ACID IP Tracker provides unequivocal dated evidence for files in digital transit - simply, efficiently and effectively."
Dids Macdonald, ACID’s CEO said:
“Most micro enterprises and SME’s cannot afford to go all the way to Court over infringement, so the most important element of IP protection is a deterrent and preventative strategy, particularly when sending sensitive information to a third party. Importantly, providing receipted evidence of sending reverses the burden of proof and makes it easier to take action.”
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IP advantage: case studies showing benefits of IP in real world (24 sep 10)
The World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) have just launched a new database IP Advantage of case studies showing the benefits of IP. The database has been jointly developed with the Japan Patent Office. It sets out the experiences with IP of inventors, creators, entrepreneurs and researchers around the world from across the globe. The case studies offer insights into how IP works in the real world and how its successful exploitation can contribute to development.
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SABIP bows out with two further reports (19 jul 10)
The Strategic Advisory Board for IP which since its formation in 1998 has provided the UK Government with independent advice on IP strategy announced today that it was being disbanded. Its research programme will be integrated into the Intellectual Property Office's own research work.
Before today's announcement, SABIP published two further research reports:
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the EU patent - one step nearer? - new language proposals (1 jul 2010)
In an attempt to advance the early adoption of an EU patent, the European Commission has proposed a further compromise solution to deal with the language issue for the single EU patent - under the current European system, a patent validated in all states costs 10 times as much as the comparable patent in the USA.
The new proposals, published on 1st July in a proposed Council Regulation, would involve the European Patent Office (EPO) examining, granting and publishing a new EU patent in one of the three existing official languages - English, French or German, with only the patent claims translated into the other two official languages. No further translations into other languages would be required except in the case of a legal dispute concerning the EU patent. In this case, the patent owner could be required to provide further translations at his or her own expense.
The new proposals would also involve the EPO providing (at no extra expense to applicants) high quality, machine translations of the patent application into all the EU languages shortly after it is first published in one of the three official languages. These machine translations would have no legal effect - at the moment such local language translations only appear several months after the patent is granted so that in future inventors in Europe would have better access to the technical information in patents in their own language.
The proposals also include special financial concessions for applicants from countries in the EU which don't have English, French or German among their official languages, to provide the necessary translation into the EPO official language needed when they file the application.
The proposals will now have to be considered by the Council of Ministers.
read more:
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