Posts by Vicki Strachan

Whether you are a start-up or an established company that uses innovation to stay ahead of your competitors, launching a successful new product can be likened to doing a jigsaw puzzle: all of the different elements or pieces need to fit together in the right way, many of the pieces are linked in some way…

I am often asked, when, during the product development cycle, is the best time to put IP in place, and the answer is, there is no “best” time or ‘one size fits all’ solution: every case is different and need a unique strategy. That is why your IP strategy should be reviewed (at least) at…

In the first of our series of Bitesize blogs about UK patents, we discuss: What is a patent and what is the point of having a UK patent? What is a patent? A patent is a form of intellectual property right that grants the owner a monopoly on commercialising an invention for a limited period…

We are often asked, how long does it take to get a patent? And the answer is not as straightforward as you might think. It varies country-by-country, but in the UK, it can take anything from 21 months to 4 years to process a patent application through to grant, and sometimes even a little more.…

I am often asked, when is it safe to tell people about my invention?  Along with, who can I tell?  What is to stop them from stealing my ideas?  How can I raise funds or market interest if I can’t tell people about my invention?  And, can I still patent my invention after I’ve told…

Introduction The European Patent Convention currently allows an applicant to seek patent protection in the 38 EPC Member States via a single European patent application which, once granted, can be validated in any or all of those countries.   At that point, the European patent becomes a “bundle” of national patents in the validated countries.  This…

Every year, hundreds of thousands of patent applications are published globally and, as a searchable collection, published patent specifications hold a wealth of commercially-useful, as well as scientifically-valuable, information. Whether you want to find out if your own invention is potentially patentable, or if your new product might infringe someone else’s patent rights, or if…

Registered IP rights are just like more traditional insurance products: you hope you are never in a situation whereby you need to use it. But if you do, financial (and other) recompense can be claimed. But, unlike traditional insurance products, registered IP rights offer much more value than merely as a means of recompense. So…

Have you invested a lot of time, effort and know-how into creating databases within your business? Among the most valuable assets within many businesses are the collections of data they have created in order to allow them to carry on their day to day commercial activity.  These could include things like mailing lists and customer…