Business Support Update

For many years the first port of call for inventors was their local Business Link. Although Business Link's national website will remain, its regional and local services will begin to disappear from the end of March 2011. Opinion is divided as to whether the abolition of those services will be a good thing but it is a reality and we have to get used to it.

Free advice for inventors will continue to be available from the PATLib libraries such as Leeds Central Library and the British Library Business and IP Centre. Several of those libraries host patent clinics in conjunction with the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys and Ideas 21. You can also book a free 30 minute consultation with a patent or trade mark attorney, specialist lawyer, product development consultant, business advisor or other professional by clicking on the NIPC Clinics website or calling us on 0800 862 0055.

We can also put you in touch with an inventors club or help you set up your own in your area. There you can learn from other inventors or meet local professionals. You can also join us for free newsletters and updates. We can help you in practical ways - introducing you to trusted professionals, business angel networks and community finance development institutions or by negotiating discounts for you with IP insurers or product design consultants.

If you are willing to pay for business advice check out our accountants page for information on start-ups and funding offered by the ICAEW and other professional bodies. There are also plenty of good coaching and mentoring schemes some of whcih are offered through your local chamber of commerce.

I have today updated the NIPC Inventors Club website to take account of those developments. If you want us to keep you up to date contact us through our contact form or call us on 0800 862 0055.

Online IP Clinic

An IP clinic is a free consultation with an intellectual property professional such as a patent or trade mark agent or specialist lawyer. Sometimes you can also see some other professional like a business adviser or marketing consultant.

Since 2005 we have operated walk-in clinics in a number of towns and cities in the North of England with the help of local professionals. Our clinics have been hosted by friends such as Gumption and Bennett Brooks. Clients have been referred to us by other friends such as Bmedia and Business Link Yorkshire.

The North of England, however, is a big place and there is a limit to the number of people we can get to see. We also want to make sure that our clients see the right sort of professional. There is not much point is talking to a product design consultant about a complaint of copyright infringement or a barrister about funding. Also we have had enquiries from people as far apart as Buckinghamshire, Glasgow and South Wales.

So we have decided to put our clinics on line. Inventors and entrepreneurs can now get in touch with us by calling our roll free number, 0800 862 0055, or using our online form. Once they get in touch with us we contact an appropriate expert and ask him or her to give the client 30 minutes or so basic advice. It's all set out in the FAQ on our clinics website.

So what sort of enquiries can we deal with? The answer is: "All sorts." Just like other patent clinics we can introduce you to a patent or trade mark agent who can advise you on patenting or trade mark or design registration. But we also have

• barristers and solicitors who can tell you about enforcement, licensing, manufacturing and joint venture agreements
• engineers and product design consultants who can talk about prototyping and testing, and
• angels and community development finance institutions who can talk about funding.

So, whatever your industry, and whatever your position whether managing director, private inventor, academic or professional adviser, if you need a bit of help from your friends, give us a call.

NIPC Clinics go nationwide

Ever since February 2005 Jane Lambert has provided 30 minutes of her time to up to 4 members of the public on the last day of every month absolutely fee of charge. She calls these advice sessions "clinics" and you can get some idea of what goes on at these sessions from the clinics website at www.nipc-clinics.co.uk  or from her post "Tales of the Patent Clinic" on the IP Yorkshire blog.  These clinics have proved very popular and Jane has responded to requests to open others elsewhere.   She now has 8 of them in Barnsley, Bradford, Halifax, Huddersfield, Leeds, Rotherham and York in Yorkshire and another at Bromborough in the Wirral.

That is as much as any one woman can manage and we have reluctantly had to turn down requests to extend that network until now.   However, from 1 October NIPC clinics will go nationwide.   Inventors or business people can fill in a form online or call one number which will enable us to identify the problem and identify who is best suited to help resolve it.   We will then arrange for the client to meet a local professional well suited to assist him who may be a barrister, solicitor, patent attorney, trade mark attorney or a member of some other profession. The professional will give the client up to 30 minutes of his or her time absolutely free.

All the professionals in Yorkshire and the North-West who have participated in our programme have picked up work through the clinic.   We are therefore about to recruit solicitors, patent and trade mark attorneys, accountants, business and other advisors throughout the country to assist us.