Steve van Dulken's Patent blog

Make your Mark webchat

I was asked a few days ago if I would take part in a webchat about intellectual property. I had no idea then what a webchat was -- it's simply e-mailed in questions from the public with answers to them -- and have just returned from the offices of Make your Mark, who encourage and support those, especially the young, who want to get involved in business and entrepreneurship.

I found it a fun experience giving fairly snappy, broadbrush answers to questions about the subject. You could go on forever, of course, answering many questions.

The text of the webchat, in which inventor Celia Gates also took part, can be seen on their website.

Britain's annual Innovation Report 2008

Britain's first Innovation Report was published yesterday after a launch by the Prime Minister. There is a good deal of information about it on its website. Itr is encouraging that the government is taking such an interest in fostering innovation.

There are two versions, and the one with case studies is, I suggest the most interesting -- it does include (page 193) a case study on the British Library's Business & IP Centre, which I and my colleagues in the Research Service support by providing priced research for customers.

The report contains a great deal of data, including on knowledge transfer (for example, between universities and industry) in reviewing progress towards encouraging innovation, which is not just patentable innovation. To me one of the key problems is surely the lack of technical skills at all levels, with few emerging from schools or colleges with skills in engineering and other subjects. This includes the ability to search databases for what has already been done (why reinvent the wheel ?) -- sadly, the word "searching" only appears once, in passing, in the report.

Birmingham and the PATLIB network

Yesterday I visited the intellectual property collection at Birmingham Public Library, one of the PATLIB centres.

PATLIB consists of libraries in the UK which provide help in searching for patents, trade marks and designs, and which also help in other ways related to intellectual property rights. There are lots of databases out there on the Web but it's difficult for novices to know how to get the best out of them, or how to interpret the results. 

Matthew Jelfs, one of their librarians, explained to me about the extensive effort that they make in providing seminars and making visits. They do not restrict what they do to the West Midlands, either. Over 130 people have attended their seminars in the past 12 months. They have private cubicles with a PC in them, so that inventors can explain their ideas in private to a librarian and watch a search being carried out for them. There is also an extensive and active business library up the staircase.

Like the other PATLIB libraries, much of what they do is free of charge. The British Library is also a member of the system. Contact details of all the libraries are available on the Web, and it is always best to telephone to ask if an appointment is necessary, as visitors are likely to get a lot more out of it then.

The reason I was in Birmingham was that some of us were attending the World of Learning Awards 2008. Sadly, we didn't win our category, E-learning Solution of the Year. This was the free intellectual property courses we provide which people can work through on the Internet, a collaboration with Nelson Croom. Quite a few people have signed up but there's room for plenty more on the web site.

I spent the rest of yesterday exploring some of Birmingham's rich industrial heritage of canals, factories and warehouses.

Corporate plan for intellectual property

The UK Intellectual Property Office, formerly the Patent Office, has published a 34-page Corporate Plan setting out the challenges facing intellectual property, and what they hope to do do in the future. 

There are of course other agencies involved in stimulating prosperity and creativity. The Plan refers to related documents, including Creative Britain: New Talents for the New Economy, published in February 2008 by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport. That report points out that over the last decade the creative sector has increased at twice the rate of the rest of the economy. Its emphasis is on encouraging more young people into the sector.

New British Library online course on searching databases

For those who have completed Course 1 (on the basics of intellectual property), the British Library has launched Course 2 on searching databases in patents, designs and trade marks.

The courses are free and are described on a page which also links to registration details. Course 2 in theory takes two hours to complete. The result is someone who has a much better idea of how to use the links to databases listed at the bottom of the British Library's home page for intellectual property.

BBC radio talks on intellectual property

The BBC is broadcasting talks on intellectual property daily next week, from the 25 February. They will be on Radio 4, and the five-part series will be called Mine all mine.

They will be 15 minutes long and will be broadcast at 15.45. Each will be on a theme: My Idea, My Name, My Music, My Pictures, My Words. "My Name" is about trade marks. Chris Ledgard is the presenter, and it will include his talking with staff from the UK Intellectual Property Office.

The name of the series intrigues me -- I can only think of its being the catchphrase of Stingy, one of the puppet characters in TV's Lazytown. Or is it Gollum ? A slightly odd tone, perhaps, to set for what is one of Britain's biggest industries.

The web site for the series is likely to feature "listen again", where for a limited period the talks will be available as (free) audio over the Web.