Resources for Inventors in South West England

South West England consists of the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Somerset and Wiltshire. the city of Bristol and the Isles of Scilly. The region covers an area of 23,828 square kilometres and has a population of just under 5 million.

Regional Development

The regional development agency for the region is the South West Regional Development Agency. This will be abolished with all the other RDAs by March 2012. Proposals for local enterprise partnerships have been accepted for:

• Bath and North East Somerset (The West of England LEP); and
• Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

Clinics

There are clinics at Bristol Central Library and the University of Plymouth. Inventors in South West England can also access online advice and, where appropriate, introduction to local patent and trade mark agents and other intellectual property practitioners through NIPC Clinics.

Community Development Finance Institutions

There are three CDFIs in South West England:

• Bristol Enterprise Development Fund for the Bristol Metropolitan Area
• Frederick's Foundation which has branches in Devon, Dorset, Gloucester, Somerset and Wiltshire; and
• South West Investment Group which covers the whole of the region.

Inventors Clubs

The South West Inventors Club meets on the third Wednesday of the month at Yeovil to discuss members' inventions, intellectual property, funding and other matters.

Libraries

There are PATLib libraries at Bristol and Plymouth.

Professional Advice

We are building up a network of local patent and trade mark attorneys, specialist solicitors and other professionals in South West England. You can access that network by calling us on 0117 325 6300.

Further Information

We have a page on inventors' resources in South West England on the Inventors' Club website which we shall update and expand as and when we can. We have an Inventors Club group on Linkedin and you can of course join the Inventors Club itself. If you want to contact us you can also get in touch through our contact form.

Patent Ownership Co-Ownership and Corporate Ownership

This was the title of Roger Lowe's talk to Sheffield Inventors Group on Monday. Roger is proprietor of ip4all, an intellectual property consultancy in Huddersfield.

He began his talk by quoting Mark Getty:

"Intellectual property is the oil of the 21 century. Look at the richest men a hundred years ago; they all made their money extracting natural resources or moving them around. All today’s richest men have made their money out of intellectual property."

Roger then discussed patents as property rights, something that can be bought, sold or charged. He considered ownership and warned that:

"The mere suggestion of co-ownership of patents makes the blood of IP practitioners run cold."

Co-ownership must be adopted only as a last resort.

Too true. He then explained why. Having told us why co-ownership is a bad thing he considered some of the alternatives such as licensing and corporate ownership. The best time to consider these issues is before the application for a patent but not every patent agent tells you that.

There will be no Inventors' Group meeting for May because the first Monday falls on the Mayday Bank Holiday but there will be an exhibition at Central Library to celebrate World IP Day on 26 April 2011. If you want to join the club or set up an inventors' club in your own area call us on 0800 862 0055 or complete our contact form.

Goodbye Chis and Thanks

Today I learned that Chris Brown, the City Library's patent librarian is to retire. Chris has done much for inventors and entrepreneurs in the North. She is a very skillful business and patents researcher. She runs the Manchester IP clinics. She is treasurer of the Manchester Inventors Group. I should like to add my thanks to those of many others for all her help over the years and wish her a long and happy retirement. At the end of their meeting this evening the members of Group gave Chris a little present. This photo shows Chris making her acceptance speech.

Now losing Chris is bad enough but worse is that she is not to be replaced. The City will try to make do with non-specialist librarians. Now those librarians are no doubt very capable and dedicated professionals but they cannot be expected to find their way round esp@cenet or understand the results in the way that Chris can.

Having been born at Lorna Lodge in Barlow Moor Road I can proudly claim to be a Mancunienne. For most of my career I have practised from chambers in Manchester and have thus contributed to the City's coffers. As much of the Council's expenditure over the years has struck me as utterly profligate I am all for making savings. But not replacing Chris is a false economy.

Other cities are actually expanding their business and patents information services to fill the gap left by Business Link (see "Mark Prisk announces new business Advisory service" 8 Sep 2010 RealBusiness). I hope that the Council thinks again for the sake of the City and, indeed, country.

Sheffield and Manchester Inventors Clubs

Two interesting events that dovetail very well together:

• Sheffield Inventors Group will present a talk by Roger Lowe of IP4All on patenting and making sure that you have title to your invention at Sheffield Central Library at 18:00 tomorrow (see my article in IP Yorkshire for details).
• Manchester Inventors Group will present a talk by Steve Reece of the Rich Inventor programme on the top 11 mistakes inventors make in selling their inventions at Manchester City Library at 19:00 on Tuesday, 5 April 2011 (see my article in IP North West for further information).

I shall be chairing the Sheffield event and I hope to get along to the Manchester talk. I will certainly blog Roger's talk and I hope to write something about the Steve's too.

Resources for Inventors in South East England

South East England consists of the counties of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex. The region covers just under 19,096 square kilometres and has a population of just over 8 million.

Regional Development

The regional development agency for the region is the SEEDA (South East England Development Agency). This will be abolished with all the other agencies by the end of March in 2012. Proposals for local enterprise partnerships have been accepted for the following areas:

• Coast to Capital: Brighton, Croydon, Gatwick Triangle, East Sussex and Surrey;
• Enterprise M3 (North East Hampshire and West Surrey)
• Kent and Greater Essex and East Sussex
• Oxfordshire City Region
• Solent
• Thames Valley and Berkshire

Business Angels

There are no less than 4 angel networks:

• Finance South East
• Ground Floor Ventures
• Kent Investor Club
• Thames Valley Investment Network

Clinics

A clinic is run by local patent agents at Southampton Central Library on the last Wednesday of the month between 17:00 and 19:00. Local inventors can also access NIPC Clinics through our website or call us on 023 9316 2030.

Community Development Finance Institutions

There are no less than 5 Community Development Finance Institutions in South East England:

• Capitalise Business Support
• Frederick's Foundation
• Hastings Trust
• Isle of Wight Lottery
• South Coast Moneyline

Inventors Club

The Wessex Round Table of Inventors is based in Southampton. It holds regular monthly meetings and offers advice on funding, IP, licensing, marketing and other matters. It also has an excellent blog and website.

Libraries

Portsmouth Central Library is the only PATLib library in the region. However, clinics are held not there but in Southampton.

Professional Advice

We are building up a network of local patent and trade mark attorneys, specialist solicitors and other professionals in South East England. You can access that network by calling us on 023 9316 2030.

Further Information

We have a page on inventors resources in the South East on the Inventors Club website which we shall update and expand as and when we can. We have an Inventors Club Group on Linkedin and you can of course join the Inventors' Club. The rules are here and use this form to join.