Posts by Vicki Strachan

I am often asked, if you have patent protection for your innovative product, why register your design as well? Registered designs protect the outward appearance of something, rather than its underlying technical concept.  For that reason, registered designs are often dismissed as ‘weaker’ IP than patents.  And, where the principal USP of a product lies…

I repeatedly wax lyrical about not underestimating the value of intellectual property to your business. IP protects your key differentiators, the elements of your business offerings that set them apart from your competitors. To you (and your business), IP is hugely valuable: it often represents a significant investment and may be the most valuable asset…

I hear, all too often, that ‘apps can’ be patented’, but this is not necessarily true. Even if your app is not patentable, that does not necessarily mean that we cant place at least some valuable intellectual property around it, to protect your investment and give you a head start when you launch it. Read…

I couldn’t let Valentines Day go past without picking up on one of the longest courtships in history. Barbie and Ken have, I’m sure, celebrated many Valentines Days together. And they have a sound IP strategy to thank for that. Many of you will know the basic story of how the Barbie doll and brand…

Remember this?  I remember when the Rubik’s cube® hit the shelves in shops around the UK.  Years before the internet was invented, it nevertheless became an overnight sensation and everyone I knew had one.  People started bragging about how quickly they could solve it.  I never could (without a cheat sheet), but in my defence,…

It’s amazing what you discover when you Google “female innovators”.  One particularly notable innovator was none other than Hedy Lamarr, the star of the big screen in the 1920s. Ahead of her time In her spare time, she worked on inventions of all sorts.  She was a close friend of the aviation tycoon Howard Hughes,…

It may come as a surprise to some that board games and card games are, under certain conditions, patentable in the UK and in the USA, and patents for board games can be hugely valuable. In fact, one of the best known board games in the world was patented, although the patent didn’t realise its…

Episode 2 Once again. I find myself drawn to weird and wonderful patents as inspiration to start the New Year. Many of the world’s population (predominantly female, I suspect) will have started (yet another) diet on 1st January 2022, having consumed much of their 2022 calorie allowance for the year in the preceding two weeks…