The Importance of Branding in Precision Medicine
Branding has a very important role to play in any industry. However, it is crucial in the field of precision medicine, which is by its very nature, personal. For this reason brand names in the precision medicine field should resonate with people (think ‘hearts and minds’).
A brand name that speaks positively to the public will help you to earn consumer loyalty and trust in what is an extremely fast growing and competitive industry.
It is also particularly important that trade marks in the precision medicine field are selected with care owing to the potential implications of confusion arising if one brand were to be mistaken for another.
This article discusses some of the key recommendations when it comes to branding and trade marks with a particular focus on the field of precision medicine. (more…)
Emoji and IP – an article for World Emoji Day 🎉🐱🚀😃🙌
As the old saying goes, a few well-chosen emojis paint a thousand words. To celebrate World Emoji Day, and the joy of all things emoji, we’ve compiled a few thoughts on the topic.
Revised Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal
On 1 January 2020 the new Rules of Procedure of the Boards of Appeal (“RPBA”) came into force, affecting substantially all(1) appeals pending on, or filed after 1 January 2020. The revised rules have three main aims: i) to increase the efficiency of the appeals procedure; ii) to improve predictability for parties; and iii) to harmonise the approach of the Boards (particularly in regard to the admissibility of amendments to a party’s case). (more…)
The Internet of Things and Patent Pools
This article provides an overview of the topics discussed in the recent webinar hosted by BrightTALK titled ‘The Essential Value: IoT Standard Essential Patents and the Case for Patent Pools’, and which is available here.
The so-called ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) refers to the use of wireless or cellular technology to connect different devices that can transmit and receive data to one another. Whereas previously the use of cellular technology was limited to relatively few types of devices – most notably, mobile telephones – more and more consumer and enterprise devices and products are now being equipped with such technology, making possible wireless communication between various devices in different technological fields.
Wireless communication is typically performed according to a number of different industry defined and approved technical standards. Standards are often developed by committees formed of experts from various companies in the relevant industry. Each expert, or group of experts, will bring ideas for new practices or technologies – possibly reflecting the innovation occurring within their company – that they believe should be adopted into a new standard. The committee will decide which of these practices or technologies are written into the new standard.
In many cases, practices or technology defined in a new standard will have pending or granted patent protection, owned by the company whose experts brought the technology to the committee, for instance. In such cases, this means that operating within the scope of such patents is unavoidable to implement the standard. Patents satisfying this condition are therefore known as ‘Standard-Essential Patents’ (SEPs). (more…)
Give me a patent. Quick!
Photo by Alex Powell on Pexels.com
Conventional project management wisdom tells us that from ‘good, fast and cheap’ you are only allowed to pick two. While for patent drafting there may be some good reasons to fear the quality of rushed work too, you do sometimes have very good reasons for wanting to have a patent application filed within a matter of days, rather than weeks. Fortunately, if proper care is taken, there is no good reason why such fast-paced patent drafting should weaken your patent position or deplete your financial resources. (more…)
IP for Startups: Top 5 Things You Need to Know
Jonathan Goodacre (UK and European Patent Attorney) of Keltie provides some tips and advice to newcomers to IP in a short subtitled video and covers:
- The different types of IP protection that you might encounter (e.g. patents, trade marks and designs);
- Registered v unregistered rights;
- Applications v granted rights;
- The difference between registrability v Freedom to Operate;
- IP rights are jurisdictional.
1 June 2020
Collaboration and the role of AI in the fight against COVID-19
These days, with the UK and many other countries around the world in lockdown, and much of the news and social media output directed towards reporting updates of the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be easy to focus only on the negative, scary and often depressing aspects of the current global situation. However, whilst such aspects are of course important and not to be trivialised, this author has found that taking a step back and looking at some of the positives that have also arisen from this situation has certainly helped to put things in perspective and has been good for her mental wellbeing.
In particular, those stories relating to the largely unprecedented (except perhaps in similar times of global hardship in the past) degree of cooperation and collaboration at many levels of society in an effort to beat the virus do provide some welcome relief. This author would like to share a few examples that, as an ex-astrophysicist and current patent attorney specialising in software inventions, have been of particular interest. (more…)
Business as usual at Keltie during COVID-19 special measures
Dear Friends and Colleagues
With regard to the developing situation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic, we would like to reassure our clients that we remain fully operational and are able to deliver the same quality of service as you would expect under more normal circumstances, including full continuity of our client-specific teams where applicable. Our infrastructure allows all our staff to work seamlessly from home and nearly all our staff are now doing so. Only a handful of volunteer staff remain in each of our offices in London, Cambridge, Galway and Cirencester to oversee the transition to full home working and they are closely observing government advice regarding social distancing. (more…)
IP Audits
Wouldn’t it be nice to have some free money to spend on evaluation of your company’s intellectual property?
Well, I’m pleased to tell you that with the generous support of the UK Intellectual Property Office, this is exactly what is on offer.
The scheme in question is called the IP Audits Plus service. It gives those company’s that apply, and are selected, access to a fund of £3,000 (inc. VAT) to spend on evaluation of the company’s IP position (only £500 of which is funded by the company). The money can be spent with a qualified patent or trade mark attorney of the company’s choosing to conduct an Audit of the firm’s IP assets and provide a report. (more…)
EQE 2020 -Exam Venue Curse Strikes Again
They say that history repeats itself. But while it may have taken 30 odd years for your parent’s oversized denim jackets to come back in fashion it appears that the EQE/CIPA exam venue issue comes around on a far shorter timescale.
It was only three years ago, for EQE 2017, that a number of candidates were told that they had not secured their preferred venue in the UK and were instead being allocated to Munich.
Now, IPcopy is aware of at least two candidates (one pre-EQE and one main EQE) who have just discovered, only a few weeks before the exams, that they have not been allocated seating in Walsall but in Munich. (more…)
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