Insights

    Decline of the Garden Shed Inventor?The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) has issued a new research report exploring the changing behaviours of UK patent applicants and the possible driving forces behind them. With applications to the IPO in decline and strong growth in applications to the European Patent Office (EPO) over the same period, it would be natural to assume that applicants were switching from filing in the UK to filing at the EPO. However, the picture that emerges from the new report looks quite different.  
The research analysed and compared trends in patent applications made to the IPO and the EPO over a twenty...
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    Cosmonautics: The EPO Reports Lift Off in Patent Filings Over the past couple of years, news about space has been dominated by the advances in space travel made by private companies. Space-X, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, to name a few, have gone from making small steps to taking giant leaps in only a few years.
In my previous Insight article, I looked at how a ready access to space provides new opportunities for extra-terrestrial research, and discussed some of the IP questions facing these pioneers as space-based-research starts to take off. For the moment, however, the current technological advances and trends in space exploration are already providing a tangible...
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    Spotlight on Sustainability at Tokyo 2020Aside from the achievements in the sporting events, Tokyo 2020 is noteworthy for the spotlight it put on sustainability. Symbolic items – podiums, torches, medals – were made using recycled materials. The Olympic flame was relayed in a torch of recycled aluminium from prefabricated housing units in the aftermath of the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. Athletes stepped onto podiums crafted from recycled plastic and were awarded Olympic medals made from recycled small consumer electronics collected all over Japan.
The Olympic medals raise awareness of electronic waste recycling.
With the rapid rise in technology and increasing consumer pressure for upgrades in functionality...
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    My Invention, Your Invention, Our Invention?Imagine you have spent years building a successful business, backed up by a strong patent protecting your core activities. Out of the blue, an old acquaintance claims they made and own the invention your business is based on, are entitled to the patent you have paid for, and want a share of your profits. That might sound like a ridiculous demand, but the law might just be on their side.
Determining the true, legal inventors of an invention is crucial for determining entitlement to resulting patents. The right to a patent starts with the inventors, and can only be transferred onwards...
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    Medicinal Cannabis – an Old Crop Turns Over a New Leaf“Medicinal cannabis” is often used as a broad catch-all term used for any kind of cannabis-based medicine used to provide a therapeutic effect, rather than for purely recreational use. Human beings have been using cannabis for medicinal purposes for thousands of years. Indeed, cannabis appears in the oldest Chinese pharmacopoeia from around 100 AD and is one of the fifty fundamental herbs in Chinese medicine. In Victorian Britain, cannabis was available as an over-the-counter medicine and was used to treat muscle spasms, convulsions, menstrual cramps, rheumatism and also as a sedative. In a number of countries, including the UK and...
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    Innovation in Action at Tokyo 2020Pioneering, astonishing and enthralling – these words perfectly describe the record-breaking performances we saw at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. But the terms could equally apply to the cutting-edge innovations that were also on display for the first time. In this article, we race through the new technologies that are pushing the boundaries of human capability.
Tracking improvement
On the track, world records were broken in the men’s and women’s 400 metres hurdles, as well as the women’s triple jump. However, advances are also to be found in the track itself. The revolutionary Tokyo 2020 athletics track contains three layers specially designed for...
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    The Sky’s the Limit – or Is It?More than fifty years since we set foot on the Moon, space exploration has recently stepped up a gear. NASA’s latest space mission, Artemis, aims to establish a sustainable human presence on the Moon by 2030, with the ultimate goal of sending humans to Mars. In my previous Insight article, I looked at how space exploration can drive innovation back on Earth. Here, we go on a fly-by of some of the scientific opportunities made possible by research actually performed in space, and the impact this has on the earthly world of IP.
Science in space
Conducting experiments in space is not...
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    Batteries – a Roadblock for Electric Vehicles?It is clear that we are in the middle of an electric vehicle revolution. Despite making only around half a million cars a year, the well-known electric car manufacturer Tesla became the world’s most valuable car company in 2020. Major companies such as Volvo and Jaguar, keen not to be left behind, are pledging to sell only electric vehicles by the end of the decade.
However, a major obstacle to the widespread adoption of electrical vehicles has been providing the necessary energy storage in a form which is compact, lightweight and capable of providing consistent, high power output across repeated charging...
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    Open Source and Patents: Share Your Cake and Eat It TooThe open-source movement has been around for decades and has provided freedom to users and programmers to use and develop existing software. Unlike industries involving physical products, the low barrier of entry to software development and distribution has meant that many users find themselves having the knowledge and resources to contribute to software development, but at times prevented from doing so due to existing intellectual property (IP) rights. This has led some to view IP rights, such as patents, as a hindrance to innovation. However, this need not be the case, and there are very good reasons why, as an...
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    Device Marks - Orientation and Details MatterDevice marks (also known as logos or figurative marks) can be a valuable part of a trade mark portfolio. For many well-known brands, these icons or symbols are as familiar to consumers as the company name itself and serve as an easy visual identification tool. However, careful consideration of the form of the mark that is registered is needed for device marks, particularly where the mark is made up entirely of simple geometric elements. 
The importance of the registration in terms of defining the scope of protection has been highlighted by a recent decision from the EU’s General Court in an...
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    Sailing Close to the Wind: Budget BrandsWhat do hair serums, salmon fillets and caterpillars all have in common? The answer is of course that they have all been the subject of high-profile trade mark disputes.
The arrival of budget supermarkets in the UK has increased competition and provided consumers with greater choice. However, in seeking to compete with more familiar and established household names, these lower-cost retailers have often ‘sailed close to the wind’ by bringing to market a wide range of so-termed ‘copycat’ or ‘imitation’ brands. Whilst some may argue that these ‘copycat’ brands simply provide busy shoppers with helpful ‘visual cues’ to familiar product types,...
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    Marvellous Messenger – The Magic of mRNA VaccinesThe human body is constantly encountering agents with the potential to make us ill. Most of the time these pathogens either fail to pass our physical barriers (like skin and mucus) or they lose the arms race with our ever-vigilant immune systems. Sometimes, though, we could do with some extra help – which is where vaccines come in.
The modern concept of “vaccination” originated with Edward Jenner, who showed in 1796 that an extract from a cowpox pustule could protect against smallpox, although the same principle had been used around the world long before that. Jenner’s vaccine worked by training the...
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    Loose Lips Might Sink IP ShipsYou have just come up with a new and exciting invention. Understandably, you are keen to disclose your invention – perhaps to a potential investor or external collaborator. However, disclosing your invention in the wrong way, at the wrong time, or to the wrong person, may prevent you from being able to effectively commercialise your invention. In particular, you may find that you are unable to obtain useful patent protection for your invention. So it is important to understand how the inevitable tension between disclosing and patenting your invention can be effectively managed.
Controlling the disclosure of your invention is key
Two...
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    Patenting Artificial IntelligenceIt is hard to avoid the AI revolution that is taking place around us. Indeed, in a lot of areas this revolution is already mature. We have come a long way from teaching computers to play draughts and chess or tell the differences between cats and dogs and it often seems like your smartphone knows more about what where you are likely to go next (and what the weather, traffic and COVID infection rates are there) than you do.
This “revolution” is not just evident in the high-tech, computer-focused fields that are traditionally associated with AI. The latest breakthrough in biological...
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    Can My Computer Own a Patent?In recent years, interest has been growing in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and the potential use of AI in different technologies for improving our lives. One example of high interest is the application of AI in self-driving cars. Other areas of technology such as medicine, where AI might be used in automated diagnosis of disease, are also of interest. However, recent advances in the AI field has led to a particular question – if AI development becomes advanced enough that some form of AI might itself develop a new invention, how would the patent system deal with this?
AI...
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    An Introduction to SEPsA Standard-Essential Patent, or SEP, is a patent that protects an invention that must be used if a product is to comply with a technical standard. 
Technical standards are used across many sectors and technologies to ensure that products from different manufacturers are compatible and interoperable, both for physical products and software. For example, technical standards underpin the field of information and communication technologies, ranging from the dimensions of USB connectors and CDs, to the specific communication protocols used in WiFi, Bluetooth, and 4G/5G mobile communication technologies.
Technical standards are developed by standards organisations working with partner organisations to develop and decide...
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    Branding in Product Design – Finding Your Sweet SpotBrands are all around us. Consumers will be familiar with brands associated with the names of companies and their products, and at the next level the logos, stylised fonts and colours that they use to present themselves in advertising or online usage.
But did you know that brands can also extend into designs applied to the products themselves? It is at this point that the law strikes a tricky balance between protecting valuable goodwill that may exist or be acquired through a particular trading style and not stifling competition by preventing competitors from using standard decorative (or functional) features. This was...
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    Space Technology: Back on EarthThe National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is at the forefront of technological development for use in space travel and exploration. However, many of the innovations that are developed by, or in collaboration with, NASA are actually used a lot closer to home as well – we take a look at some of NASA’s technologies which have really taken-off here on Earth.
Aerogels: outer space to outerwear
Traditionally, NASA has used hard aeroshells for delivering payloads, such as rovers, to other planets. These generate drag to slow the payloads in descent, while also acting as heat shields for atmospheric re-entry. 
In order to...
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    A Microbiome of OpportunityThe human body includes tens of trillions of cells, but not all of them are human! This article focuses on the at-least 30 trillion non-human cells that we each carry with us – our microbiome. These non-human cells include bacterial and fungal species, together with viruses, and can be found throughout our bodies, including the skin, respiratory tract, and gut. 
There are many hundreds of species of non-human cell present in varying combinations in different sites throughout the body, with the result that even within one individual there are many incredibly diverse microbiomes. There is also considerable variation between individuals, with...
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    3D Printing: An Overview With the recent boom in the consumer 3D printing market, it is perhaps easy to forget that early attempts at the technology were made as far back as the 1980s. Indeed, the patent application for the material extrusion technology used in most consumer machines today, namely Fused Deposition Modelling (granted as US 5,121,329), was filed in this period. 3D printing may have started off as a fanciful idea, but it would quickly turn into an effective option for small-scale manufacturing.
A breakthrough was made in 1999 when scientists succeeded in printing a human bladder. By 2008, advances in materials science and...
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    The Startup Patent Dilemma“I need a patent to get investment, but I need investment to get a patent!”
This is something I hear quite frequently when I meet people involved with very early stage technology businesses, or those with aspirations to start a business. 
My first response is usually to commend them on the fact that they are considering an intellectual property (IP) strategy at this point. As many readers will know, patents are time-sensitive. Most jurisdictions, and all the popular ones, now grant patents on a “first-to-file” basis, rather than “first-to-invent”. This means the first one to file a patent application to an invention...
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    Patents in an Academic EnvironmentThe word “inventor” tends to conjure a picture of an eccentric working late into the night in a garden shed to create weird and wonderful devices. Everything from novelty snowmen to squirrel-proof bird feeders has been patented over the years but most inventions, and inventors, do not in fact fit this stereotype at all. Many inventions arise during the course of in-house commercial research in major industries such as electronics, pharmaceuticals, telecoms or biotechnology and increasingly the academic sector is a major contributor as well.
The US Bayh-Dole Act of 1980, which gave US universities control of federally funded inventions that...
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    Bioinformatics: Revolutionising Healthcare?You have probably heard talk of bioinformatics - it is an increasingly popular field of research – but do you really know what it is, and how it is affecting research carried out in your area? In short, bioinformatics is about applying statistical and computational techniques to the analysis of biological systems. This is of particular interest in relation to the genome, where a growing number of academics and companies are interested in the applications of genetic analysis in the fields of clinical care, digital health, and personalised medicine.
Since the completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003, a number...
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    Women in STEM: Unsung Heroes of VaccinologyThe Covid-19 pandemic has brought STEM out of the lab and into the wider public domain in a way that is relevant to us all. At the start of the pandemic in early 2020, engineers were in a race against the clock to build more mechanical ventilators; mathematical modelling was used to predict how the number of cases could grow; smartphone apps were developed to track the progress of the virus; we clapped for our healthcare professionals; and more recently we have had positive news on the rapid development of a new vaccine. As part of the Ada Lovelace Day...
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    Understanding IP: Some Common MisconceptionsThere is a growing awareness of IP in our society, and the potential value of an IP portfolio is gaining more and more attention. However, misconceptions abound. Let’s debunk five common misunderstandings: 

“We have a patent, so we have the right to exploit our invention.” Unfortunately, this is not the case. In fact, IP only provides the right to stop others from doing something - it does not provide the right to do something yourself. Before you exploit your invention, you need to check to see if there are patents owned by third parties that might cover what you plan to...
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Insights

Decline of the Garden Shed Inventor?

Cosmonautics: The EPO Reports Lift Off in Patent Filings

Spotlight on Sustainability at Tokyo 2020

My Invention, Your Invention, Our Invention?

Medicinal Cannabis – an Old Crop Turns Over a New Leaf

Innovation in Action at Tokyo 2020

The Sky’s the Limit – or Is It?

Batteries – a Roadblock for Electric Vehicles?

Open Source and Patents: Share Your Cake and Eat It Too

Device Marks - Orientation and Details Matter

Sailing Close to the Wind: Budget Brands

Marvellous Messenger – The Magic of mRNA Vaccines

Loose Lips Might Sink IP Ships

Patenting Artificial Intelligence

Can My Computer Own a Patent?

An Introduction to SEPs

Branding in Product Design – Finding Your Sweet Spot

Space Technology: Back on Earth

A Microbiome of Opportunity

3D Printing: An Overview

The Startup Patent Dilemma

Patents in an Academic Environment

Bioinformatics: Revolutionising Healthcare?

Women in STEM: Unsung Heroes of Vaccinology

Understanding IP: Some Common Misconceptions

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