Invention-Con 2022: The US Patent and Trademark Office's Online Conference for Inventors, Makers and Entrepreneurs

Interior of the US Patent and Trademark Office

Author Hanaxides Licence CC BY-SA 4.0  Source Wikimedia Commons

 

Jane Lambert

Every August, the US Patent and Trademark Office ("USPTO") holds a conference for independent inventors, entrepreneurs, and small business owners known as Invention-Con. I mentioned it for the first time in USPTO Annual Inventors' Conference - something we should do here on 2 Aug 2014. Until 2019 the conference was held at the USPTO's head offices in Alexandria, Virginia just outside Washington DC. No doubt because of the pandemic Invention-Con was held online in 2020 and 2021.  So, too, will the next one which will take place between 10 and 12 Aug 2022.

The importance of the conference is attested by the welcome from Kathi Vidal, the Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the USPTO on 10 Aug 2022.  Her entry on the Invention-Con website describes her as follows:

"As the chief executive of the USPTO, she leads one of the largest intellectual property (IP) offices in the world, with more than 13,000 employees and an annual budget of more than $4 billion. She is the principal IP advisor to the President and the Administration, through the Secretary of Commerce, and is focused on incentivizing and protecting U.S. innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity. She leads an agency whose mission is to help American workers and businesses compete and collaborate, especially in ground-breaking technologies and across all demographics."

Immediately after the Director's welcome, there will be a 5-hour session entitled "Introduction to Intellectual Property" which will cover such topics as "Your IP, a potential gold mine", "IP journeys – Go from eureka to enterprise" and "IPitching: Innovation and investment". There will be another 5 hours the next day on the theme "Now what? How to put in motion a plan to protect your idea/business."  That will include talks on "Funds to fuel your future", "Grants and growth", "Succeed with government funding and resources" and "Inspiration to impact".  The final day will be 5 hours of talks on "IP in Everyday life" covering "IP in the fitness industry", "Tech in arts", "Small Business Success Stories" and "Meet the new trailblazers: Innovation to impact."

The speakers include inventors, angel and private equity investors, US government officials, entrepreneurs and professional advisors.  One of the most interesting is Arul Mathur who intends to read computer science and engineering at my alma mater, UCLA,  Arul, who is aged 18, has invented an automated, self-contained fire suppression system called Fire Activated Canister Extinguisher ("FACE") to protect properties against fires without the need for manual intervention.  He was inspired to invent FACE after a wildfire threatened his home.   After the record temperatures and the fires in London earlier this week, he will find a market for his invention here. 

The talks take place between 12:00 and 17:00 eastern time which would be between 17:00 and 22:00 our time.   Registration is by Eventbrite.  It does not appear to be possible for those who live outside the USA to register through Eventbrite because registrants have to pick a state or territory.   However, special enquiries could be made to inventioncon@uspto.gov.

There is no reason why other countries (including ours) should not stage similar conferences.  We do stage events like the British Invention Show but there is nothing like Invention-Con.  There is a great need for practical advice on patent, design and trade mark prosecution, grant, equity and loan funding, setting up businesses and scaling up which Invention-Con appears to deliver.   

Anyone wishing to discuss this article may call me on +44 (0) 20 7404 5353 during normal business hours or send me a message through my contact form.

How to make Money from your Invention - Starting your own Business

Jane Lambert

On 13 Sept 2017, I introduced readers to the Inventors Handbook on the European Patent Office's website which suggests four ways of exploiting an invention in its Exploitation Routes page:

• "A licensing agreement with a company
• Business start-up: get your idea to market yourself
• A joint venture 
• Outright sale of your idea."

I discussed the first way in How to Make Money from your Invention: Licensing on 14 Sept 2017. This article discusses the second option, namely a business start-up.

Before starting on this route inventors should satisfy themselves that they have the right personal qualities. Wherever they live in the UK, a good place to start is Business Wales's Starting up and Business Planning page.  In particular, they should read Is self-employment for you? and complete the Assess Your Personal Qualities questionnaire. There may be options even for those who score badly on that assessment such as employment or a consultancy with a business to be set up by others who are of the right temperament and possess the right skills and experience.  Considerably caution should be exercised by both sides in those circumstances.  Any agreement should be properly documented with both sides taking legal and accounting advice.

The next question for inventors is whether they have the right skills.   Some of these can be taught.  The Business and IP Centre at the British Library and its national network of city centre libraries host free or inexpensive courses and workshops on all sorts of topics from accounting to writing business plans. Other good places to learn include Tech Nation's Digital Academy and the Google Campus.  Another option is to build a team.  Again, that requires caution. professional advice for all concerned and full documentation.  Ideally, there should be a professionally drafted shareholders' or other agreement between the promoters with robust dispute resolution procedures in case things go wrong.

Such an agreement should incorporate or at least refer to a business plan and it goes without saying that the business plan should take account of intellectual property (see Jane Lambert Why Every Business Plan Should Take Account of Intellectual Property 3 April 2016 NIPC News). The business plan should be more than something to impress the bank manager.  It should be the company's road map.  The business plan should coordinate every aspect of the company's activities and policy including research and development, marketing and of course intellectual property (see An IP Strategy for Private Inventors  13 Jan 2019).

The business plan will be relied upon by the company's investors and lenders.  Long term investment to enable the company to buy or hire premises, equipment, vehicles and the like will be exchanged for shares in the company.  That is called "equity investment" and it is usually provided by inventors' friends and family, business angels and private equity or venture capital investors.  Working capital to cover components or raw materials, professional service and other short term costs may be provided by the company's bankers or, increasingly frequently, peer-to-peer lenders.  This is often referred to as "debt".  Lenders may require security over the company's assets but they are unlikely to wish to interfere in its management. Equity investors 0ften want representation on the board. Again, both sides should take professional advice and document any agreement that they may reach in a shareholders' agreement or some other instrument.

Inventors should be aware that very few fortunes are made from a single invention.  It may give their business an advantage for a time but that advantage will usually be eroded as competitors' launching their own new products or services. Research and development and innovation should continue.  Inventors should always be looking for the next gap in the market or other business opportunity.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article or inventions generally should call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact page.

Resources for Inventors and other Startups in Northwest Wales

Author Morwen
Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 unported
Source Wikipedia 

Jane Lambert

The area coloured bright green on the map may not be the everybody's first choice for setting up a new business but it has a lot going for it:

1. It is a very pleasant place in which to live.  I have travelled the world but never have I found a more attractive combination of coastal, mountain and pastoral scenery than in the Lleyn Peninsula. 
2. It is close to four major conurbations, namely Greater Manchester, Merseyside, South and West  Yorkshire and Dubiln. 
3. It is part of the Northern Powerhouse and on the freight routes between Dublin and London and Dublin and the ports on the Humber.
4. It has a fine research university at Bangor which has developed the Menai Science Park in Anglesey (see M-SParc - Anglesey's Science Park 29 Aug 2018  NIPC News) and the Pontio Centre with its FabLab (see The Pontio Centre: A Resource for Inventors, Designers and Makers in North Wales 14 Dec 2018).

Unlike England, there are no local enterprise partnerships in Wales.  Instead, Business Wales offers the same sort of advice and support that used to be provided in England by Business Link under the strategic oversight of the Welsh government.  There are therefore no Business and IP Libraries though Llandudno junction was once part of the PatLib network (see A New Patlib has opened at Llandudno Junction North Wales 15 April 2011 Patlib UK).  The nearest English Business and IP Centre is at Liverpool Central Library. 

As there are no Business and IP Centres in Wales Liverpool Central Library hosts the nearest CIPA patent clinic. Advice on contracts, copyrights and trade marks is also available through specialist clinics at the library.  The only IP clinic in Wales takes place at the Intellectual Property Office in Newport.  A search of the CIPA and CITMA databases suggests that all the patent and trade mark attorneys in Wales practise in the south and mainly in and around Cardiff.

Business funding in Wales is offered by the National Development Bank of Wales which trades under the Banc trade mark.  The Bank has four offices in Wales the nearest being at St Asaph and Wrexham.  According to the "About Us" page of its website, it offers both loan and equity finance.  A list of the funds it manages also appears on its website,   There is also a business angel network known as Angels Invest Wales 

Anyone wishing to discuss this article or any matter arising from it should call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact page.

British Business Bank

The most interesting session at this year's Venturefest Yorkshire was From Concept to Commercialization a panel discussion chaired by Nigel Walker of the Technology Strategy Board. One of the members of the panel was Ken Cooper of the British Business Bank ("BBB"). As I had not heard of the BBB before I buttonholed Mr Cooper on his way out and asked him to tell me a little more about his institution which is described as "a state-backed economic development bank" that supports "economic growth by bringing together public and private sector funds to create more effective and efficient finance markets for smaller businesses in the UK."

Surprisingly the BBB is not a throwback to the days of Harold Wilson or even Gordon Brown but a creation of the present government.  Paragraph 2.116 of HM Treasury's Autumn Statement 2012 contained the following statement:

"Business Bank – As announced by the Chancellor and Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills in September 2012, the Government will create a Business Bank. It will deploy £1 billion of additional capital to stimulate the private sector market for long-term capital and address structural gaps in the supply of finance to SMEs. As part of this, the Government will co-invest at least £300 million over the next two years, alongside private investors, in channels that will help diversify the sources of finance available to SMEs. The Business Bank will bring together under a single institution the strategy, management and communication of existing government finance schemes for SMEs. In addition, the Government will also seek to bring government-backed business advice services closer together, harmonise their engagement with customers and coordinate them closely with finance interventions, to improve accessibility for SMEs. A number of the Business Bank’s functions will be operational from spring 2013, with the institution becoming fully operational in autumn 2014. The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills will set out further details later in December 2012."

Mr. Cooper told me that the BBB is at present merely a programme within the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills ("BIS").  It is not yet authorized or regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority or the Bank of England. However, Her Majesty's government has applied to the European Commission for confirmation that the BBB will fall outside the prohibition of art 107 (1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union. Should HMG's application be successful the programme will be transferred to a public company by the name of the British Business Bank Plc which will provide various types of financial support for small and medium enterprises ("SME").

BIS expects to unlock up to £10 billion of extra funding for SME over the next 5 years and it has set out how it intends to achieve that objective on the "What we do" page of the BBB website. Rather more detail is given in a presentation dated Fed 2014 entitled "British Business Bank Unlocking Finance for British Business."  The presentation notes that SME in the UK invest far less than their competitors in other EU countries and a number of reasons have been identified as to why that is so. These include

• High market concentration - It is said that there is a highly concentrated market for smaller business lending in the UK, which leads to lack of diversity of financing choices for smaller businesses
• Viable smaller businesses are not being served well enough
• Capital constraints on lenders, and
• Lack of longer term development capital.

The BBB proposes solutions for all those problems. Thus the problem that smaller businesses are not being served well enough will be met by debt programmes, start-up loans, enterprise finance guarantee, equity programmes, enterprise capital funds ("ECF"s), ECF Venture Capital Catalyst, Business Angel CoFund, UK Innovation Investment Fund and the Aspire Fund.

In his talk in York on Thursday Mr Cooper spoke a little about the Angel CoFund which was created with a £50 m grant from the Regional Growth Fund in 2011. It is a £100m investment fund for promising UK businesses and it is intended to help develop business angel investment in this country. The Angel CoFund works very closely with other business angel networks which are represented by the UK Business Angels Association ("UKBAA") and indeed Mr Cooper is a member of the board of UKBAA.

One of the topics discussed that was discussed for some time on Thursday was intellectual property. Nicole Ballantyne of the GrowthAccelerator and PERA Consulting who was also on the panel said that many businesses were unaware of the IP that they already owned much of which could be converted into revenue. She mentioned an IP audit scheme and spoke of the need to protect IP. When the discussion was opened to the floor I rose to point out the distinction between intellectual assets and intellectual property and that businesses can actually ruin themselves by spending too much time, effort and money on patents and other registered rights that they do not need.

Anyone wishing to take advantage of those programmes, whether as inventor, entrepreneur or investor, will need first class advice not just onIP but also on tax. Uniquely our chambers can provide both.  My colleagues and I in our IP, Technology and Media Law Group can advise on IP strategy, patenting and the like and our colleagues in Atlas Tax Chambers which includes Anne Fairpo can advise on such matters as the patent box and other incentives. Should anyone wish to discuss this article or out services generally, he or she should call us on 020 7404 5252 during office hours, fill out my contact form, tweet me, write on my wall or get in touch through G+, Linkedin or Xing.

Kate Reid: Confidentiality and Licensing

Counsel are probably in the best position to judge whether a solicitor, patent or trade mark agent is any good because we are instructed by members of those professions. Since the 4 July 2004 barristers have been permitted to deal directly with the public. Public access has changed the way we are instructed but it has not changed the work that we do. If a case requires a solicitor we have a professional duty to advise our client to that effect.   As often as not, the first question from the client is "Can you recommend one?"  I usually make a number of suggestions depending on the nature of the work but it it involves litigation or licensing I nearly always include Kate Reid, principal of Pemberton Reid.

According to her web page, Kate qualified as a solicitor in 1995 and worked at both Hammonds and Lupton Fawcett in Leeds before setting up Pemberton Reid.  In addition to her LLB she holds a post-graduate diploma in Intellectual Property Law and Practice.   She has been instructed in some important cases:

"Antec International v AVS (patent infringement), Antec International v SWC (passing off), Scholes Windows v Magnet (design right infringement), Tyco European Metal Framing v Clewer & others (design right infringement ), 1-800 Flowers (objection to a trade mark application), Bentone v EOGB (trade mark invalidity proceedings)."

Her work now includes:

• advising on the existence and extent of intellectual property
• advising on infringements of intellectual property rights
• intellectual property agreements such as licences and assignments and confidentiality agreements
• intellectual property litigation in the High Court and Court of Appeal
• proceedings in the patent office regarding ownership and entitlement to patents
• prooeedings in the trade marks registry regarding opposition and invalidity of trade marks
• WIPO domain name dispute resolution actions 
• due diligence for purchasers and sellers of intellectual property
• distribution, supply and commercial agency agreements
• terms and conditions of trading
• advising on the Commercial Agents Regulations 1993
• litigation in relation to the Commercial Agents Regulations 1993.

Kate was guest speaker to the World Intellectual Property Day meeting of Leeds Inventors Group on 18 April 2012 (see "Kate Reid at the Leeds Inventors Group 18.4.12"  26 April 2012).  The title of her talk was "Confidentiality and Licensing"). On confidentiality she discussed

• why use a confidentiality agreement
• what is confidential information
• when is information not confidential
• how long will information be confidential, and
• what can it be used for.

On licensing she talked about the nature of a licence and the rights that can be granted, royalties and the usual terms with a few special words about trade marks.   

Immediately after her talk we had a presentation from FabLab Airedale which is now open for business (see

"FabLab Airedale: Introductory Offer and Visit" 2 May 2012 IP Yorkshire). The next meeting of the Leeds Inventors Group will be a visit to FabLab Airedale in Keighley on 16 May 2012 between 18:00 and 20:00 (see "16th May Leeds Inventors Group -visit to Fablab Airedale" 2 May 2012 Leeds Inventors Group blog).   Inventors from Sheffield are also invited and I am sure that those from elsewhere would be very welcome.   If you want to come please call Ged or Stef on  0113 247 8266.

Finally, a plug for Sheffield Inventors.   If you want investment to develop your invention come to Sheffield Central Library, Surrey Street, S1 1XZ at 18:00 sharp on 14 May 2012 to hear Mr. Russell Copley of Angels Den speak on  "Raising Business Growth Investment - Alternatives to Bank Finance". Angels Den is one of the largest angels networks in the UK.

Further Reading

Jane Lambert "All you need to know about confidentiality" 14 June 2006

Jane Lambert "Enforce a Confidentiality Agreement for as Little as £475" 21 Aug 2010

Jane Lambert Sample Confidentiality Agreement 21 Sep 2010

Inventors' Resources in Northern Ireland

On Saturday I published a case note on the recent decision of Mr Justice Denney in Siemens AG v Seagate Technology [2011] NICh 12. That was a patent infringement case which came before the Northern Irish courts. There have not been such cases from Northern Ireland and many practitioners expressed amazement that it could happen at all.

I take a different view. If Northern Ireland is to flourish its businesses have to innovate and if those businesses are to innovate their investment in branding, designs, technology and creative works have to be protected. Accordingly I checked the resources that are already there and found that there was quite a lot going for Northern Ireland:

"There is the Queen's University in Belfast "a broadly based, research-driven university with a dynamic world-class research and education portfolio and strong international connections". There is the HALO Business Angel Network on the Northern Ireland Science Park. There is a patent information unit at Belfast Central Library which is more than can be said for Manchester now that Chris Brown has gone or Liverpool while it is refurbished. According to CIPA there are 4 patent agencies in Belfast, namely Ansons, F R Kelly, Hanna IP and Murgitroyd and three of those firms have "Trade Mark Experts" listed on the ITMA website. I would add that there is also the excellent Eddie O'Gorman who runs the PatentNAV IP Search and Management Service. So there is already a lot going for Northern Ireland."

I have not however been able to find a patent clinic or inventors club either in Belfast or any other city or town in Northern Ireland and I am not sure what sort of advice is available through Northern Ireland Business Information which seems to be the equivalent of Business Link.

I hope to visit Northern Ireland in the next few weeks to meet colleagues from the Northern Irish Bar, local patent and trade mark agents and solicitors specializing in intellectual property and technology, media and telecommunications law. I hope also to meet Mr McFarlane who is the head of the patents section of Belfast Central Library to gauge whether there would be any enthusiasm for local patent clinics and inventors clubs.

In he meantime, I have uploaded a page on the inventors' resources in Northern Ireland that I have been able to discover onto the Inventors Club website. Should anyone wish to discuss it please give me a ring on 0800 862 0055 or use my contact form.

Angels: Cambridge Capital added to the List

Cambridge Capital describes itself as "a leading business angel group of 40 investors that have been investing in hi-tech businesses for ten years." Its members claim to have invested several million pounds into 25 companies in the Cambridge area.

I have added Cambridge Capital's details to the East of England Angels page of our Inventors Club. Further information about resources for inventors in the region are in the East of England page of our website.

For further information on this topic call NIPC East on 01603 343030 or click our East of England contact form.

Resources for Inventors in the West Midlands

The region known as "the West Midlands" consists of

• the metropolitan county of the West Midlands with its metropolitan boroughs of Birmingham, Coventry, Dudley, Sandwell, Solihull, Walsall and Wolverhampton,
• the shire counties of Staffordshire, Warwickshire and Worcestershire and
• the unitary authorities of Hereforshire, Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin and Stoke-on-Trent.

The region covers an area of just over 13,000 square kilometres and has a population of 5.27 million.

Regional Development

The regional development agency for the West Midlands is Advantage West Midlands. This will be abolished with all the other RDA by March 2012. However, proposals for local enterprise partnerships have been accepted for:

• Birmingham and Solihull with East Staffordshire, Lichfield and Tamworth
• Black Country
• Coventry and Warwickshire
• Stoke and Stafforshire
• The Marches, and
• Worcestershire.

Angels

There are at least two local business angel networks:

• Central England Business Angels ("CEBA") of Henley in Arden; and
• MINERVA of the University of Warwick University science park.

Clinics

Local patent attorneys offer free consultations at Birmingham Central Library in conjunction. NIPC Clinics will also introduce inventors and their investors, lenders and professional advisors to local patent and trade mark attorneys, business advisors, product design consultants, lawyers and others.

Community Development Finance Institutions

There are at least 6 community development finance institutions in the West Midlands:

• Aston Reinvestment Trust of Birmingham;
• Black Country Reinvestment Society of Wolverhampton Science Park;
• Coventry & Warwickshire Reinvestment Trust;
• East Lancs Moneyline of Staffordshire;
• Impetus Rural Reinvstment in the Marches; and
• StreetUK of Birmingham.

Inventors Clubs

There are inventors clubs in Birmingham, Kingswinford and Malvern.

Professional Advice

Members of NIPC West Midlands offer specialist advice and advocacy on intellectual property, information technology, telecommunications, media, entertainment and competition law. We can be reached on 0121 286 1551 or through our national contact form.

Further Information

Further information on inventors resources in the West Midlands will be published on the Inventors Club website.

Resources for Inventors in North West England

North West England consists of the counties of Cheshire, Cumbria, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Merseyside. It includes the Greater Manchester and Merseyside metropolitan areas as well as Blackburn, Blackpool, Burnley, Carlisle, Chester, Lancaster, Preston and Warrington The region covers just under 14,165 square kilometres and has a population of just over 8.85 million.

Regional Development

The North West Regional Development Agency has co-ordinated regional development until now. This agency will be abolished together with the other regional development agencies by March 2012. Proposals have been accepted for local enterprise partnerships for Cheshire and Warrington, Cumbria, Greater Manchester and Liverpool City Region.

Business Link

Business Link North West is based at Brian Johnson Way, Preston, PR2 5PE, Tel 0845 00 66 888. There are local advisers throughout the region.

Clinics

The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys usually holds patent clinics in Liverpool and Manchester Central Libraries but both of these libraries are closed for refurbishment. The Manchester clinic has moved temporarily to Manchester City Library at Elliott House, 151 Deansgate and meets every third Thursday. The Liverpool clinic is still looking for a new venue. Blackburn and Darwen Library arrange occasional clinics with local patent agents at Blackburn Central Library on request.

Funding

There is an angel network known as North West Business Angels.

There are no less than seven community development finance institutions in North West England:

• BBV (Bolton Business Ventures Ltd.);
• Business Finance Solutions;
• CART (Cumbria Asset Reinvestment Trust);
• East Lancs Moneyline;
• Lancashire Community Finance;
• Merseyside Special Investment Fund; and
• Moneyline Greater Manchester.

Inventors Clubs

There are inventors clubs in Blackburn (Ideas North West), Liverpool and Manchester. Like the Liverpool patent clinic, the Liverpool Inventors Club is looking for a temporary home pending the refurbishment of Liverpool Central Library.

Libraries

There are Patent Information Centres (also known as "PATLib libraries) in Liverpool and Manchester Central Libraries. Both libraries are being refurbished. The Manchester patent library has moved temporarily to City Library at 151 Deansgate. Blackburn Central Library operates an Inventors Information Point with an extensive collection of resources.

Professional Advisers

NIPC was the first and remains the only intellectual property chambers outside London was established in Manchester in 1997. Alex Khan is based in Manchester.

Janet Bray who practises from Hebden Bridge is on our patent attorneys' panel.

Michael Sandys and Joanne Shelley are solicitors specializing in intellectual property.

Michael Swift is a chartered accountant with experience of advising and assisting start-ups.

Jonathan Butters is an experienced product design consultant.

Further Information

We have a page on inventors' resources in North West England on the Inventors Club website

which we shall expand and update as and when we can. We have an Inventors Club group on Linkedin which covers developments affecting inventors throughout the UK. You can of course also join the Inventors Club if you want. The membership rules are here. There is no subscription but we may charge for special services such as showcasing inventions and access to professional services. Anyone who wishes to contact us should call us on 0161 850 0080 or use our online form.

New Angel Network: Ground Floor Ventures Ltd.

One of the things about twitter is that you never know who you may meet. Somebody who has just started to follow me is Ground Floor Ventures Ltd.

Ground Floor Ventures is an angel network. On its website it describes itself as follows:

"Ground Floor Ventures is about bringing together entrepreneurs with investors and, unlike other existing 'angel networks', we choose not to charge entrepreneurs to come along and pitch. This means Ground Floor Ventures gets really interesting opportunities that the other events miss out on by pricing out the early stage entrepreneurs. We look for unique businesses which have the potential for serious growth and we aim to attract entrepreneurs looking for a relatively small amount of investment (typically under £30k) so that investors don't have to be 'squillionaires' to reach into their pockets and 'get in on the ground floor' of fabulous business opportunities."

Its next pitching event is on 7 February. If you want to learn more, contact Jack Symons on 07717 171345 or email him on jack@groundfloorventures.co.uk

Resources for Inventors in the East Midlands

The East Midlands covers the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northanptonshire, Nottinghamshire and Rutland. According to Wikipedia the region's population is just under 4.2 million and its land area is 15,627 square kilometres. Major towns and cities include Nottingham, Leicester, Derby, Lincoln and Northampton.

Regional Development

The East Midlands Regional Development Agency is the regional development agency for the East Midlands. Proposals for local enterprise partnerships have been accepted for Derby and Derbyshire and Nottingham and Nottinghamshire, Leicester and Leicestershire, Lincolnshire and the South East Midlands.

Inventors Clubs

There does not appear to be an inventors' club in the East Midlands as yet. However, the Sheffield Inventors Group welcomes members from Derbyshire and the Birmingham and Black Country clubs are within comfortable driving distance of most of Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire. Should inventors from the East Midlands wish to set up their own club, we should be glad to help. Call us on 0115 824 9090 or use our online contact form.

Clinics and Libraries

There are no PatLib libraries and hence no CIPA clinics in the East Midlands. However, each of the county and district council library authorities have good on-line and printed business information resources. If anybody from the East Midlands wants advice on any aspect of inventing he or she can contact our clinic using this form. We shall put him or her in touch with a local professional advisor.

Business Advice

Business Link East Midlands is at Innovation House, Riverside Park, Raynesway, Derby, DE21 7BF Tel: 0845 058 6644.

Funding

East Midlands Business Angels Ltd. is the local angel network. There are three community development finance institutions in the region:

• Derby Loans
• First Enterprise, and
• Leicester Moneyline.

Professional Advisers

So far we have one panellist in the East Midlands, the trade mark attorney Mr. Philip Cooper of VeryMark.

There are several well known firms of patent and trade mark attorneys as well as law firms that specialize in intellectual property in the region but we do not yet know any of them well enough to recommend to recommend to private inventors with limited budgets. We advise inventors to shop around and tell us what you find.

Further Information

We have a page on Inventors' Resources in the East Midlands on the Inventors Club website which we shall expand and update as and when we can. We have an Inventors Club group on Linkedinwhich covers developments affecting inventors throughout the UK which you can join. You can of course also join the Inventors Club if you want. The Membership Rules are here. There is no subscription but we may charge for special services such as showcasing inventions and access to professional services. Anyone who wishes to contact us should call us on

0115 824 9090 or use our online contact form

Resources for Inventors in the East of England

This is the second of my regional surveys of resources for inventors.

The East of England covers the counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk. According to Wikipedia the region has a population of 5.39 million in a land area of 19,120 square kilometres. It is home to one of the world's greatest research universities. According to the Intellectual Property Office there were 1,844 patent applications from the region in 2009 placing it third behind South East England and London with 2,777 and 2,752 respectively. Its regional development agency is the East of England Development Agency. Three local enterprise partnership proposals have been accepted from the East of England, namely Greater Cambridge and Greater Peterborough, Hertfordshire and Kent Greater Essex and East Sussex.

Inventors Clubs

I am aware of only one inventor's club in the region. That is CHASE (the Cambridge High Tech Association of Small Enterprises) in Cambridge. The Association meets on the first and third Tuesdays of most months, holds an annual dinner and an occasional conference. Further information can be obtained from Jeff Veil on 01223 721499. I would have expected to find inventors clubs in Bedford, Chelmsford, Colchester, Hatfield, Ipswich, Luton, Norwich and Southend. If inventors in any of those cities want us to help them set up an inventors club they should call us on 01603 343030 or contact us through this form.

Clinics and Libraries

There are no PatLib libraries and hence no CIPA clinics in the East of England. However, each of the county and district council library authorities have good on-line and printed business information resources. If anybody from the East of England wants advice on any aspect of inventing he or she can contact our clinic using this form. We shall put him or her in touch with a local professional advisor.

Business Advice

The HQ of the local Business Link is at Zenith Court in Hatfield. There are local Business Link offices in each of the major towns and cities of the region. Advice and mentoring is also available from Keith McCallum who holds the Business Doctors franchise for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Hertfordshire.

Funding

Eastern Capital Alliance is a local angel network. There are three community development finance institutions in the region:

• Foundation East in Bury St Edmunds; and
• NWES and WEETU in Norwich.

Professional Advisers

There are several well known firms of patent and trade mark attorneys as well as law firms that specialize in intellectual property in the region but we do not yet know any of them well enough to recommend to recommend to private inventors with limited budgets. We advise inventors to shop around and tell us what they find,

Further Information

We have a page on Inventors Resources in the East of England on the Inventors Club website which we shall expand and update as and when we can. We have an Inventors Club group on Linkedin which covers developments affecting inventors throughout the UK which you can join. You can of course also join the Inventors Club if you want. The Membership Rules are here. There is no subscription but we may charge for special services such as showcasing inventions and access to professional services. Anyone who wishes to contact us should call us on 01603 343030 or send us an email.