Posts by Vicki Strachan
Battle of the Lookalike Products
I don’t usually blog about in-depth trade mark issues because I am not a Chartered Trade Mark attorney, and I use a trusted partner to help me to provide high quality trade mark services, so I don’t often feel qualified to comment on trade mark issues. However, it is inevitably high profile trade mark court…
Read MoreProtecting your invention overseas
Patents are territorial rights. This means that if, for example, you have a UK patent, it will allow you to stop others from making or selling your invention in the UK. BUT, if you want to be able to stop them from doing the same in other countries, then you need to secure patent protection…
Read MoreThe dangers of joint IP ownership
Intellectual property (IP) ownership is a crucial aspect of innovation and creative work, making sure that creators and inventors keep control over their ideas. BUT, joint intellectual property ownership—where two or more parties share the rights to a piece of IP (e.g. a patent)—can create significant challenges and problems. While it may seem like a…
Read MoreProduct Developers: Help your clients to protect their investment
When innovators have an idea for a new product, they will often use the expertise that you, as a product developer or designer, have, to make sure that a marketable product is developed, tested and designed. There is obviously a cost associated with that, so how can you help your clients to protect their investment?…
Read MoreHow to protect your new app
According to some reports, the global application development platform market was valued at $5,497M in 2018 and is expected to reach $34,768M by 2025. This extraordinary predicted growth (32.9% pa) is based on the rising demand for commercial mobile devices and the emergence of cross-platform applications. There is certainly a vast amount of app development…
Read MoreCan you patent things that seem “obvious”?
It is reasonably rare for a client or potential client to have come up with some groundbreaking or breakthrough technology that is completely different and vastly improved compared with what is already known. It is much more common to see step-change improvements or combinations of known technologies or ideas, and hear, all too often (from…
Read MoreWhat is the difference between patents, designs and trade marks?
Many potential clients come to us knowing that they need some form of intellectual property (IP) to protect their innovative products, designs or brand names/logos, but are often unsure about what type of IP they need.. There are three main types of registered intellectual property: patents, (registered) designs and (registered) trade marks, and they all…
Read MoreWhat exactly is Intellectual property…?
…and why could it be so important to your business? The official definition The World Intellectual Property Organisation (or “WIPO” as it’s affectionately known) defines Intellectual Property (IP) as “creations of the mind; inventions; literary or artistic works; and names, symbols and images used in commerce. But, as a patent attorney (and, by trade, a…
Read MoreSpeaking to people about your new product
Developing a new concept into a product and getting that product onto the market often takes some time, effort and money, and is rarely something that can be done in isolation. You obviously don’t want your new idea to be copied and, when the time is right, you may plan to file a patent application…
Read MoreDon’t forget to protect your Christmas product launch!
Protect your Christmas product launch! So many people/businesses will want to get their new/improved products out for the Christmas market. If you want to protect those products, NOW is the time to be thinking about it. Because, once you’ve started marketing the product (or disclosed it in any way), it may be too late to…
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