Correction

In case readers miss her comment, Linda Oakley has very properly pointed out that there are a number of people who give their time to Ideas 21. I happily acknowledge them. Those who spring to mind are Eve, Dee, Roland and his staff in Manchester and Richard Gallafent in London but there may be others. They all do a good job. I thank them for their efforts.

Blogging is supposed to be spontaneous which means that errors sometimes get through. I meant to say in "Making Money from Crime" that I had not been to any "Last Tuesday" (that is to say London Tuesday evening meetings) but I have certainly been to many Manchester ones. I have also been to at least one day time event as well as a talk on advisory opinions on 1 July which was brought to my attention and booked through Linda.

The only reason I haven't been to quite so more this year is that we have moved to the Media Centre and as I don't have time for two trips to Manchester per month I have to make a choice between the Manchester Inventors' Group and Second Tuesday meetings and, up to now, more of the former that have caught my interest than the latter. But that may not always be the case. I went to both inventors groups' meetings when I was working in Manchester. The Second Tuesday ones were always very good.

Linda is certainly a better source of information about Ideas21 than me. She says in her comment that she can be reached on 020 8780 9017 at any time. I had found it difficult to reach her in the afternoons on the four or five occasions that I have tried to call her last year but perhaps I was unlucky. Ideas21 also has a comprehensive events diary on its website the address of which I have previously supplied.

Free Legal Advice

On the last Friday of every month I give a free clinic between 11 am and 1 pm at The Media Centre in Huddersfield. Save for occasional clinics that I do by special arrangement with Bradford Business Link and IdeasNW, I charge by the hour at all other times. Today I have only one client which may mean that everybody else is satisfied or found some other advisor but it may be that not everyone is aware of the service.

Anyone who wants free advice from me on the last Friday of the month should make an appointment with Jacquie Asquith of the Huddersfield Business Generator on Tel +44 (0)1484 483 080 Email j.asquith@huddersfieldbg.co.uk. Anyone wanting to catch me in Bradford should call David Robertson-Brown on Tel +44 (0)1274 772777 and anyone wanting to catch me in Lancashire should call Paul White at Blackburn Borough Council on Tel +44 (0)1254 692692 Email paul.white@blackburn.gov.uk for an appointment.

betfair.com British Invention Show

I have just received an email from Linda of Ideas 21 reminding me that the "betfair.com British Invention Show" will take place at the Alexandra Palace between 20 and 23 October 2005. Not only that, but Linda is offering to host Ideas21 members' exhibits on the Ideas 21 stand.

Ideas21 appear recently to have increased their sub to £35 + a £5 joining fee, but for that you get access to the private bits of the Ideas21 website, a book by James Dyson, the bloke who invented the cyclone vacuum cleaner, and a load of pencils as well as £5 discount on admission to Second Tuesday talks in Manchester. I have been told that Ideas21 also let members of some other inventors' clubs into their events for no extra cost but you will have to ask Linda about that because I have never been able to understand the rules. Her telephone number is 020 8780 9017 and the best time to catch her tends to be the morning.

If you are already a member of Ideas21 and you want to take Linda up on her offer you should email events@ideas21.co.uk ASAP.

Something for Inventors to look forward to

The BBC Technology website has an article on a personal fabricator, that is to say a machine that will make just about anything. Rapid prototype companies such as CDRM in High Wycombe and ame-prototypes at Dinnington have been using techniques like stereolithography and micro-modelling. Clark Boyd's article "Hi-tech DIY to solve local problems" reviews some of the uses of the technology in Scandinavia, South Africa and elsewhere.

It is perhaps helpful to consider these machines as a bit like 3-dimensional ink jet colour printers. These build combinations of dots of ink into any character imaginable including photos. These build up shapes from small building blocks of material in very much the same way.

Making Money from Crime

In the past this blog has mentioned meetings of the Second Tuesday Club which holds meetings in Manchester. I should have mentioned that there is also a Last Tuesday Club which meets regularly in London. Linda Oakley of Ideas 21 appears to run both. I have not actually been to a Last Tuesday Club talk (though I have been to two other events in the Smoke organized by Linda) and they have both been very interesting.

It appears that the London meetings are very much like the Manchester ones except that the London ones are free. There is a talk in the Patent Office after which everybody slopes off to "The Witness Box" just up the road. I may have spent a little too long in that establishment in my first 6 months pupillage in common law chambers because I never took to crime, personal injuries or divorce law. That may explain why I now do IP.

Appropriately, tonight's talk is on crime - "Making Money from Crime" to be exact. The speakers include Deborah Leary and Lorraine Gamman as well as patent agent Richard Gallafent. If you want to come, call Linda 020 8780 9017 or email her at events@ideas21.co.uk. Advance booking is essential for security reasons.

I had intended to go to the Last Tuesday meeting after Smith & Williamson's seminar on "The commercial implications for SMEs of owning intellectual property - How to identify, value, exploit and protect intellectual property" at the Institute of Child Health between 12:30 and 18:30 today which looks really good, but professional commitments and distance render that impossible. If anybody wants more info, call Julie Barlin Tel - 020 8492 8600 julie.barlin@smith.williamson.co.uk.

Our Man in Qatar

Our good friend, Paul Field, formerly with Huddersfield University, has just taken up an appointment with Qatar Science and Technology Park. The website describes the park as "a home for technology-based companies from around the world, and an incubator of start-up technology enterprises." Its aim is to spur the development of Qatar's knowledge economy, by providing the ideal location for companies to develop technologies and deliver them to the marketplace. We all wish him the very best of British and/or Qatari luck.

Huddersfield has already got a number of links with the region through Nadio Granata's office in Dubai and indeed Alex Khan of these chambers. We hope to build on that connection with this very dynamic part of the world.

Escape from the Dragons' Den

Manchester Inventors' Group
Central Reference Library in St. Peter’s Square, Manchester
Tuesday 4 Oct 2005 18:00

Nick Rawcliffe, one of the more successful inventors on the programme, will address the Manchester Inventors Group next Tuesday on what it is like to stand before the Dragons. He will also give some tips on getting your product to market.

Even without his TV appearance, Nick has a pretty remarkable life story. He worked as a mechanical engineer for the Ministry of Defence, took an MA in Design at the Royal College of Art, worked at Bauhaus in Germany and in Japan.

The Manchester Inventors Group in partnership with Manchester Central Library is a group that aims to help local inventors by providing the right information and sharing experiences.
The group meets on a monthly basis to discuss ideas, listen to talks by keynote speakers, brainstorming sessions, receive help from various support agencies and take part in workshop sessions. In addition, the meetings are a good opportunity to meet likeminded people.

Admission is free to attend. Further information from Chris Brown on 0161 234 1397 email c.brown1@manchester.gov.uk.

Yorkshire Pride

Anyone who you saw that wonderful film "Calendar Girls" will remember the encomium to Yorkshire womanhood by Annie's husband right at the start. As a resident of that great county, the son of a Yorkshire woman and a husband of a now adopted Yorkshire woman (albeit of slightly more southerly origin) I agree with every single word.

I wouldn't dare otherwise, would I. It is therefore with some considerable pride that I see that Sheffield Hallam and Bradford College have joined with the Open University and Cambridge to set up a website for Women in Science Engineering and Technology (SET). This website is funded by the Department of Trade and Industry as part of their Strategy for Women in SET and includes statistics, information for employers, mentoring information and much more. The website is backed up with a team of people at the Resource Centre in Bradford offering information and assistance through our enquiry form or help line.

While on the subject of Bradford, NIPC would like to congratulate Neil Johnson of University knowledge transfer department on his retirement and wish his successor, Lynsey Grieveson, every success.

Patent Office Opinions

One of the provisions in the Patents Act 2004 intended to assist individual inventors and patentees is s.13. This section provides for a senior hearing officer to determine whether a patent is valid and/or whether it has been infringed upon a reference by any interested party for the very modest fee of £200. It is a type of ADR and I think it could be as useful a tool to inventors as the UDRP is to brand owners.

This new procedure comes into force on 1 Oct 2005 by virtue of The Patents Act 2004 (Commencement No. 3 and Transitional Provisions) Order 2005. The Patent Office has a new "Commencement" page on the topic with links to guidance notes and other information explaining the procedure. Applications will be made on a new form which is not yet on the Patent Office website supported but which should be up later this week with a supporting statement. The procedure is intended to be user friendly so it may not always be necessary to instruct counsel, patent agents or solicitors, but, even where professional assistance is advisable, it ought not to cost very much.

I have already had my first enquiries about settling (barrister talk for "preparing") supporting statements one of which is likely to turn into firm instructions later in the week. I will keep you all posted. Finally, for those who want to learn more. Peter Hayward of the Patent Office and Ian Lewis of Miller Insurance will be speaking on the topic at BPP Law School in Leeds on 24 Nov 2005 at 18:00. Admission is free upon application to Jonathan Haines Tel +44 (0) 845 678 6868, The school can only accommodate 150 in the lecture theatre and tickets will be allocated first come, first served.

Mike Keenan - 1% Inspiration 99% Perspiration

The Second Tuesday, Manchester's other inventors club, is meeting at The Cube on Tuesday, 11 October 6.00 pm. The speaker will be Mike Keenan and the title of his talk is "1% Inspiration 99% Perspiration".

Admission costs £15 for members and £20 for non-members. Food and drink at
at RAIN Bar, 80 Great Bridgewater Street are included in the fee. To register on line visit http://www.ideas21.co.uk/Event_Detail/502
or call 020 8780 9017 and ask for Linda.

Beta Technology

Bob and Brian were not the only ones with tips for inventors at Leeds yesterday. Bronwen Hageman, project manager of Beta Technology also got up to say a few words.
Her company was set up by Dr Bob Keown OBE, sometime lecturer in metallurgy at Sheffield University, in 1984. Beta has had an impressive portfolio of customers including British Steel, the National Physical Laboratory and several government departments. Its services include assisting applicants for European research and development funding and providing innovation services to companies to help them develop, promote and acquire new technologies. Beta is the designated UK National Contact Point (NCP) for a number of areas of FP6 including SMEs, Life Sciences and Research and Innovation.

Beta's head office is in Doncaster and it has branches elsewhere in the North.

Bronwen is a chemistry and biology graduate of Sheffield Hallam with experience of environmental analysis and scientific instrument sales as well as consultancy. Sadly, she said she was leaving Beta. We all wish her every success wherever she is going to.

Leeds Inventors Group: from Strength to Strength

We had a really good turnout for Brian Corbett and Bob Middleton at the Leeds Inventors Club yesterday. They unveiled their training course for inventors and gave plenty of tips on licensing, product development, funding, marketing and distribution.

The Leeds Club is now well and truly established. We now have our own website thanks to Ged Doonan. We meet every Wednesday on the top floor of Central Library at 6pm. We have a full programme with Peter Bissell, author of "A Better Mousetrap" and "The Business of Invention" on 19 Oct 2005, Terry Singleton and Clayton Roudette on 16 Nov 2005 and Dr Barry Stoddart of P & G on 21 Dec 2005.

The Inventors Group is only one of many services of the Business and Business Services of Leeds Central Library. There is also a regular patent clinic staffed by local patent agents.

US Patent Office to answer Inventors' Questions online

We all owe Ilanah Simon of IPKat a debt of gratitutde for this one. She has pointed out an online question and answer session by US Patents and Trademark Office officials for inventors worldwide at 13:30 EST (apprximately 18:30 BDT). Ilanah says this is a great oppoprtunity and judging by the transcripts from previous sessions which are available on the USPTO website, I think she is right.

Help for Inventors in Ireland

In our other blog I mentioned a very interesting debate on whether there is any point in obtaining patent and other IPR protection for this country in IPR-Talk. This morning we had a very interesting contribution form an Irish commercial lawyer called Peppe Santoro. Peppe mentioned some of the tax concessions that are offered to inventors in the Republic of Ireland.

He and one of the partners of his firm had written a very interesting article entitled "Tax Exemption on Income derived from Patent Royalties." which he distributed to the list which can be downloaded by clicking here. There is other good stuff on his firm's website. I particularly enjoyed the article on ADR.

PatentScope

The WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization), the UN specialist agency for intellectual property has published a new Patent and Patent Co-operation Treaty website called "PatentScope". There is a lot of useful information on that site not only for inventors but for those who want to keep abreast of developments in technology.

For a start the "PCT Gazette" is now online. This periodical contains information about all new applications received that month. Another useful journal is the PCT Newsletter with information about the patent and utility model; protection available in each country. There is some basic information for applicants as well as more detailed stuff for IP practitioners. There is a facility for registering for email updates.

Manchester Inventors Group Website

Steve Mansfield has put together a really good site at http://uk.geocities.com/manchesterinventors/ for Manchester Inventors with links to our blog and Jobling & Knape's website.
Good luck Steve!

Innovact Conference Rheims 4 - 5 Oct 2005

In my last post I mentioned the US Patent and Trademark Office's Independent Inventors Conference. Something along similar lines is about to take place very much closer to home. Innovact (the European forum for innovative growth companies) will hold its 10th annual meeting in Rheims on 4 and 5 Oct 2005.

Around 200 innovative European projects are to be showcased at this event to 4,000 visitors from 18 countries including 18 venture capitalists. There will also be an exhibition with 200 stands, networking, 40 talks and workshops.

Attendance and exhibition fees seem very reasonable.

US Patent and Trade Mark Office helps Independent Inventors

One thing that our own Patent Office would do well to consider is a resources page for independent inventors. The US Patent and Trade Mark Office (USPTO) has one and very good it is too.

The home page describes the role of the USPTO and its history. The index page contains basic information about patents (which in the USA are available for designs and plant varieties as well as inventions), copyrights and trade marks (spelt as one word in US dialect). There is a links panel to some useful downloadable brochures and a complaints button for invention promotion companies. It's good to know that they are doing something about this problem over there, especially since many of the invention promotion companies operating here are based in the USA. Similar information is available on our Patent Office website but it is spread over several pages and you have to know your way around that site to use it to best advantage.

Another thing that our Patent Office could consider is an independent inventors' conference. They have just held their tenth at the USPTO's head office. The cost was very reasonable (US$90 about £50 in real money) with a US$10 (£5.50) discount for those over 55. Very interesting it looked too.

Free IP Advice Day

Anyone within easy reach of York may wish to take advantage of Pemberton Reid's free IP advice day. Ms. Ailsa Pemberton and Ms Kate Reid have set up one of the first (if not the first) specialist intellectual property law firm in the North of England. As their curricula vitarum show, they have bags of experience. Their firm offers just the sort of services that new and growing businesses need. Call 01904 567346 or 01904 567345 for an appointment.

Enforcement - Patent Office Seminar on 27 Sep 2005

If you visit our other blog, IP/it Update, you will find details of a Patent Office seminar on enforcement. The seminar will take place on 27 Sep 2005 at the Institute of Child Health in London. The Patent Office's press release says that the Patent Office will be providing advice to small and medium-sized businesses on resolving intellectual property problems and changes in legislation. Some good speakers are being lined up. It should be an interesting day.

Leeds Inventors Club: Turning Ideas Into Reality

Brian Corbett and Bob Middleton

Robinson-Chadburn

"The Genica Programme: Turning Ideas into Reality"

Leeds Central Library
21 Sep 2005
18:00 - 20:00

Call (0113) 2478266

We are all very sorry to learn that Dr Barry Stoddart is to have medical treatment later this month that will delay his speaking to the Leeds Inventors Group on 21 Sep 2005. Everyone in Leeds sends him good wishes for a full and speedy recovery and look forward to his talk on 21 December 2005. Ged and Stef will see whether they can get in some mince pies and something stronger than tea or coffee to make Barry feel especially welcome.

We are however delighted to be able to bring forward two speakers we had intended to approach in the New Year, Brian Corbett and Bob Middleton of Robinson-Chadburn. Their latest project is the "Genica Programme". Genica "helps entrepreneurs and inventors turn their ideas into reality." This is a series of workshops and one-to-one meetings to help inventors and business people identify possible applications for their inventions and to present them to the market in a way that appeals to users and consumers. The whole programme would take much longer than the time available but Brian and Bob have promised to give us a taster.

Brian and Bob were very much involved in the UMIC awards mentioned in my last post, "Examples of What can be Done". They will complement Peter Bissell on "The Business of Invention" on 19 Oct 2005 and the UMIC award winners Terry and Clayton on 16 Nov 2005.

Leeds Inventors' Group now has its own web page on the Leeds City Council website and NIPC is working on a website for them similar to the Huddersfield site. Photos of the first event on 20 July which Lawrence Smith-Higgins launched are above.

Examples of what can be done

UMIC (University of Manchester Incubator Company) prize winners Terry Singleton and Clayton Roudette showed off their inventions to fellow Manchester inventors at the Central Library this evening.

Terry, already with an impressive portfolio of patents, demonstrated his latest invention, the "anyway up bin". As its name suggests, this is a waste disposal system. Its purpose is to reduce the risk of repetitive strain, back and other injuries among local authority and other cleaning staff. It consists of a case made from cardboard (or other inexpensive material capable of being recycled) around which a plastic bin liner is crimped and a cap with an aperture in the form of a slit with two folding side flaps secured to the roof by two treasury tags. As the bin liner fills up the weight drags the folds of the bag up the side of the casing. That in turn forces the cap upwards. The upwards motion relaxes the tags causing the slit to close. The system therefore regulates automatically and inexpensively the weight of rubbish that can be deposited in the bin.

Clayton's invention, the TIKKI Pavilion, was equally elegant. Described in his patent specification as a building with polygonal floor it is a temporary structure as easy to erect and almost as light as a tent. Clayton emphasized in his talk that it should be regarded as a room extension rather than a marquee. He explained that the original concept was for corporate hospitality but people who had seen it gradually began to identify domestic uses. A short video suggested all sorts of uses from mini-gymnasium to dining room.

Both Terry and Clayton have accepted my invitations to address the Leeds Inventors Group at Leeds Central Libtrary at 6pm on Wednesday 16 November 2005. It should be a really good evenining.

The other main event of the evening was a discussion as to how the Manchester Inventors Group should be constituted now that public funding is no longer available. Basil Philipsz offered to welcome the Manchester inventors as a chapter of IdeasNW or work with them closely in other ways if they wished to set up a separate organization. The meeting voted narrowly in favour of accepting Basil's invitation. However, everyone agreed to set up an association and consider links with IdeasNW later. We resolved to establish a working committee under Steve Mansfield's Chairmanship. On behalf of NIPC I pledged to sponsor the new Manchester Inventors Group to the extent that our chambers already support IdeasNW.

Patent Search Room moves to British Library

The search facility previously available at the London branch of the Patent Office has now moved to the Business and Intellectual Property Centre of the British Library. The library staff have been trained by the Patent Office. The Centre is located at Euston Road. For further information call 020 7412 7677.

IP Insurance

In chambers' other blog, I discussed today whether IP insurance can work. I passed on an anecdote which suggests that it can. As I say in my article, not everyone would agree with me. Insurers, like everyone else in business, expect to make money. That means that they will not take on every type of risk and that cover is not unlimited. But it is a great deal better than nothing.

Preliminary Reading
Before doing anything else I would urge inventors to do some homework on the IP insurance market. There have been some useful recent reports published by the European Commission and IP Wales. The EC report was prepared by CJA Consultants Ltd. and is entitled Patent Litigation Insurance. The IP Wales reports are "intellectual Property & Legal Expense Insurance" by Prof Beynon and others and the preliminary report downloadable from the same site. If you really don't have time for anything else, at least read Mandy Haberman's short article "Insure or Unsure?" (Mandy speaks from experience) and the DTI's "Insurance to protect IP Rights".

Types of Insurance
There are two types of insurance policies available to patentees and other IPR owners:

- IP or "Before-the-Event" Insurance Cover
- "After-the-Event" or Legal Expenses Cover

I shall discuss the latter first because there is less to say about it.

After-the-Event
After the event cover is not specifically related to intellectual property enforcement. It is a policy against the other side's, or your own and the other side's, costs of litigation. Insurers only take on the risk if they are pretty sure you are going to win. A typical premium is one third of the estimated costs. As these are unlikely to be less than £150,000 in a Patents County Court case the insurer will look to the insured for £50,000. Insurers may accept payment for such cover by installments but it is a hell of a lot of money for an SME to stump up at a time of maximum vulnerability.

Before-the-Event
This is very much cheaper and easier to obtain particularly if it is sought at the time of the patent application. Premiums can start as low as £500 for £150,000 cover for a start up company against the other side's costs. More typically, the premium will be £4,000 plus but that will include own costs, as well as other side's costs, cover to hudreds of thousands and perhaps one or two million pounds. Insurers will negotiate exclusions, reduced premiums for accepexcesscesss and so on. Before the event cover is the sort of cover that is most likely to deter infringement.

Further Information
In mentioning the following websites I must make clear beyond peradventure that I am not recommending any of the companies that are mentioned or referred to. This is a small and esoteric area of insurance and it is essential that an IPR owner takes specialist advice. I would also advise a lot of shopping around for the best deal.

One of the informativetiive website on the subject is probably Intellectual Property Insurance Services. This is run by an agent of Templeton Insurance Ltd in the Isle of Man. In fairness, I should point out that Templeton has another agent in Kent or South-East London but I don't know a lot about them. IP Insurance Services' website gives details of its start-up, standard and after-the-event policies. Their prime mover is an entertaining Scotsman of Singapore origin called Ian Macleod. He often accepts invites to address inventors' group, Business Link and other meetings. While repeating that I amendorsingrsing Mr Macleod's or any oinsurancerance company, it is worth listening to what he has to say if he is in your area.

Another good source of information is Mandy Haberman's "Make Sparks Fly" site. I have already mentioned her article "Insure or Unsure?" The reason Mandy speaks from experience is that she was able to see off a number of predators for her feeding cup because she had been wise enough to take out cover. Mandy has found three insurance companies to sponsor her site though when I checked them out while researching for the "Insurance" chapter of a book I am writing on IPR enforcement Hiscox told me that they no longer write before-the-event policies and Richmond House Group is yet to return my call. Miller Insurance Services Ltd does offer bother intellectual property asset protection and Intellectual property litigation cover. Its director, Ian Lewis, has written a very interesting paper "Coming of Age of Intellectual Property Insurance" which I commend.

Finally, I should say that IP Wales has arranged a special scheme for its members with HSBC Insurance the particulars of which can be obtained through its website.

More to come
Insurance is an important topic as it seems to me to be the only way many companies can afford to protect their intellectual assets. I shall be posting a lot of articles on this and other sites over time. Bookmark this one because I shall always link back to this article.

Links
5 Feb 2006 "IP Insurance: Two more Insurers Identified"

Q. Why aren't there more British Patents? A. Because Enforcement is too Expensive!

On our other blog, nipc IP/it Update I posted an article "Patents: Why are there not more British Names in the Patent Office's Top Ten?" Compared to France, Germany and even the Netherlands, the UK does not do very well in the patent applications stakes. The authors of the DTI's Innovation Report muse that that may be because UK business "may not have a grasp of the
fundamentals" when it comes to protecting investment in brands and technology.

In my article, I suggest that business people in this country have only too good a grasp. They know that enforcement is prohibitively expensive. If they can't enforce a patent or other IPR, why bother to apply for one? It hasn't always been the case. Until 2000 there was a lot of state support for innovators through civil legal aid. Since then, inventors and entrepreneurs have been left to their own devices.

The article considers insurance, suing outside the UK and the promise of possible changes in the law.

Idea Generation Methods

I am grateful to Douglas Sorocco of Phosita for drawing my attention to Mr Martin Leith's Idea Generation Methods website. Mr Leith designs, plans and manages large scale collaborative meetings based on open space technology and other large group intervention methods.

The website lists and explains every idea generation method Mr Leith has encountered during the last 15 years. He explains that it is the result of extensive research into books, management journals, websites, as well as the input from colleagues.

I put it to the test and chose TRIZ which Paul Field of Huddersfield University introduced to me in his Innovation Forum a year ago. Sure enough it was there on Mr Leith's website. I was sufficiently impressed to read more and was led to a Sheffield site "Brainstorming" run by a company called Infinite Innovations.

Some Basic Information

I have put up the following primers over the last few days:

26 Aug 2005 "Acquiring Intellectual Property" a primer on Intellectual Property
24 Feb 2004 "Applying for a Trade Mark"
28 Aug 2005 "Applying for Patents"; and
27 Aug 2005 "Patents Acts 1997 - 2004"

More basic information is on the "Information" page of the Huddersfield Intellectual Property and the IP/it Update websites.

Huddersfield Ideas Gateway Launched

30 August 2005

Building on the success of Trevor Baylis's visit to Huddersfield for "Brass from Gumption" on 18 Feb 2005, Paul Field, Innovation Manager and Business Mentor of the University of Huddersfield has launched the "Ideas Gateway". This offers Baylis style breakouts - that is to say confidential brainstorming sessions at which inventors and professional and business advisors test ideas for new businesses and inventions.

For more information, call Paul Field on 01484 472264 or email him on p.field@hud.ac.uk .

Manchester Inventors Group

Inventors' Showcase

Terry Singleton and Clayton Roudette

Central Library
St Peter's Square

Tuesday, 6 Aug 2005 18:00 - 20:00

This is an important meeting for two reasons.

First, the Manchester Inventors Group showcases two success stories:

• Terry Singleton who won first prize with his "anyway up bin" in the UMIC 2005 Ideas competition; and
• Clayton Roudette who came second with his TIKKI pavilion

Secondly, this is an opportunity to discuss the future of the Group. Until June it was funded by the TIDE project. That funding has now come to an end. Members of the Group hope to re-launch as a membership association run by inventors, for inventors, either as a separate society or as a chapter of IdeasNW.

All meetings of the group will take place at Manchester Central library in St PeterÂ’s Square on the first Tuesday of every month between 18:00 and 20:00. Click here for directions.

Further information Chris Brown on 0161 234 1397

.

Ideas 21 also kicks off Autumn Season

Ray Clarke "Shaping Business"

CUBE

113-115, Portland Street, Manchester

Tuesday, 13 Sept 2005 18:00 - 21:30

Ideas 21, the other Manchester inventors group, kicks off its autumn season with a talk by marketing consultant, Ray Clarke, on the key issuesinvolvedd in launching a new product and achieving commercial success for an invention. Ray will discuss all the options open to new inventors including manufacturing, licensing and joint ventures.

The meeting will be followed by food an drink atthee RAIN bar at 80 Great Bridgewater Street.

Cost: £15 members, £20 guests

Enquiries to Roland at events@ideas21.co.uk on 0161 439 9307.