23 -24 November 2005

Athens Greece 

Epoline Annual Conference on the future of the IP infrastructure in Europe.

18-29 October 2005

USA

Filemot took a little rest and relaxation in Boston, did a little shopping, ate some interesting meals, toured the US Constitution and generally relaxed as you can see

Fortified, we ventured onto the American roads and drove north through the Lakelands and into the White Mountains on a beautiful sunlit autumn day.with a little help from my erratic map reading, we found the lake where they shot 'On Golden Pond ' and found an America that isn't too interested in intellectual property.  One could not escape the endless call to consumerism that these further away from the city's we were a few shops amongst the outlet malls that were selling the necessities of life and not merely orange plastic aids to the celebration of Halloween.

We  had a fantastically sunny Saturday to climb through the filemot forests and enjoy a breathtaking view. The little building far below is the Notchland Inn where we stayed.  Click on image to go to their site.  We can thoroughly recommend their hospitality and only regret that we did not have longer to finish the jigsaw in the living room while enjoying a blazing fire.  When we woke after our exertions on Sunday, we found that Mount Crawford was decked in snow.  Mount Washington where the weather observatory is had apparently been well covered for some time.  We were therefore constrained to drive south but not before we had visited Bretton Woods (to see if its historical connections with the economic history would tell me understand the subject) and the site where the old man of the mountains once had been.  So much for rest and relaxation.  Fully relaxed, we moved on to Washington and  the AIPLA conference.

There are a lot of judges in the USA and quite a few seemed to want to enjoy the AIPLA hospitality. The Hon Randall R. Rader ably earned his supper by serving as a judge for the moot session which focused on claim construction.  Those of us who strained to hear over the hotel staff juggling coffee cups and the inadequate microphones, learned a great deal and it is comforting to know that the US practice seems to be converging on the protocol on interpretation.  After all, if the claims don't mean what the reader understands, whose dictionary will we buy. Another Judge, Hon T. John Ward from Texas proved to be the rival of our own Patent's County Court judge, Michael Fysh for anecdotes of the first instance.

There was plenty more food for thought and learning to be had, particularly in the session devoted to the management of in-house patent departments. The divide between the needs and ambitions of the large corporate determined to top the patent lists and the fast-growing entrepreneurial company could not have been more evident and provided interesting topics of discussion for the mortals on the floor.

I bagged another patent office by visiting the new US PTO site and very impressive it is too-beats Newport in the rain any day. After too much reading of Greg Aharonian's Internet Patent News Service, I was surprised to meet so many personable examiners in such a wonderful new building. 

13 October 2005

From Malvern to Cambridge University's law faculty.  There to attend the grand launch of the CU Entrepreneurs  new Business Creation Competition (CUEBiC).  They branded it cleverly. Just like Qinetiq its the phonetic equivalent of something else.  Does everybody have it in for those of us using voice recognition.the launch gave us a brisk series of short talks to create enthusiasm for those intending to form teams to enter this year.  Not so short that I couldn't spend a little while doodling hence the rather cruel illustrations of this diary item. There were several other writers but I was paying attention to those.

Professor Friend, Cavendish professor of physics and the technologist of the Plastic Logic team reminded his student audience that Cambridge was a place where you can do whatever you want and he had ...."I thought that they would get rid of me but they promoted me".  Take advantage of your freedom now, it doesn't exist in the commercial world.

Nicky Dee explained the 3P competition is not a threepenny bit but  the prize for a business that takes account of people planet and productivity.  I thought productivity was something that all businesses do but I think this is all for the sake of the acronym. 

My final graffiti is of Billy Boyle veteran winner with Owlstone.  He has to succeed in business as his thesis that beer fuels innovation really ought to be true.  In any event, testing the hypothesis will go well with the COBRA beer sponsorship. We were able to pick up a very handy beer mat on which to note down our business ideas. I'm not putting in a link for COBRA, I  don't want you going off for your beer now there is another item for you to read. 

12 October 2005

The Short Circuit: from Bright Idea to Real Value Conference

This was an IEE conference at Qinetiq Plc in Malvern. It rained resolutely throughout the proceedings which did not lift our spirits.  I had expected a gathering of entrepreneurs but we seemed to be eavesdropping on an internal Qinetiq event. There were a host of excellent speakers each with a good keynote story to tell, bur it takes a lot of work to distill real learning from stories. If this is to be an annual event, it will need more focus if it is to lead to results. 

One highlight though was the very professional chairing of the meeting by journalist, Charles Arthur.  I've made his name link to his blog.  It's unusual to have a panel discussion that develops in any sort of interesting way that you mange to do that.

Intellectual property issues figured in a number of stories.  Entrepreneurs need to remember that the patent system is not failing because there are disputes.  Disputes and the need to resolve them are an essential element of the system. Sir John Chisholm acknowledge that he was not campaigning for any changes but would like to see more uniformity globally. The litigious experiences of Dyson were delightfully presented by Martin McCourt.  There is clearly no love lost between Dyson and Hoover but with the benefit of hindsight it was inevitable that Hoover would not be prepared to license in such a disruptive technology. Dyson survived the heat of Hoover's competition because of its intellectual property.  We also had some interesting insights into the IP strategy of 1.. Ltd -the Cambridge company with intriguing technology that may well now have found the problems its technology will solve.

6 October 2005

IEE Presidents address

To Savoy Place to hear the new president, Sir John Chisholm, executive chairman of Qinetiq plc address us on "What Defence Research Has Done for You".  Well, he is not exactly Adam Hart-Davis but it was pretty impressive.  He took us on a rapid  canter through those crises of war that had generated sufficient resource to create technological solutions to grave problems.  Governments would be early adopters of technology if their backs were close enough to the wall, whether it was the invention of radar when your entire future is vulnerable to air attack or the invention of the computer to defend the Atlantic convoys-the Bletchley Park story.  Sir John's point was that once the technology had been taken to its tipping point, you got some very unexpected results and these were what now benefited the public.  Microwaves were a mere sidewind of radar technology, our cellphones an unexpected outcome of the need to guide  torpedoes safely to their target.

Lesson: government please keep giving large quantities of money to Qinetiq Plc so that we can get to the tipping point.  But Qinetiq Plc is already partially privatised and there is a plan for  flotation. Although Qinetiq is pretty patent smart, there were some somewhat jaundiced comments in this lecture about  patents that failed to achieve anything for their holders.  Sir John is obviously not a huge fan and he may need to realise that when private money gets you to the tipping point, it expects to reap the benefit itself-the public just get to pay.

One of the technologies Sir John was predicting to be close to the tipping point was voice recognition.  I am using voice recognition to write this and it doesn't help a bit that Qinetiq Plc is impossible to train.  More research needed or less clever branding.

Normally, you pick up a printed copy of the President's address as you come out.  Not this year.  If you go to the IEE website next Tuesday, apparently you'll find the full details.  This gives them an opportunity to make it more patent positive.  Meanwhile, perhaps you'll be able to read more comment in Electronics Weekly as they seemed to be the only gentleman of the press present.

The IEE is one of those organisations that has trouble updating its database when you change firms. Although I notified my new affiliations and booked in my personal name it put Nabarro Nathanson on the badge.  Well, I thought in this group I'm not going to meet many people who know what that means so I won't scratch it out and make it look unsightly.  Mistake. As you do, in heavily male gatherings, you find yourself gravitating to the group of ladies in the corner.  I did so.  Immediately, they said what's a lawyer doing here.  There's hope for Nabarro's brand recognition yet.  The ladies were the ladies of the current and past presidents.  That's real ladies with titles. I must make sure my branding is correct before my next IEE event.

1 October 2005

Commencement date for those provisions of the  Patents Act 2004 that implement Opinions.  See our Patent pages.

21-26 September 2005 Germany

Filemot will be attending the IP days organised by the German firm Meissner Bolte & Partners. I shall also be visiting the EPO and sitting in on a Board of Appeal hearing.  We will also be enjoying a little free time as this is the time of the Oktoberfest

The picture on the right is the Olympic tower at the Olympic Park in Munich, where we spent some happy time relaxing.

The Board of Appeal hearing resulted in the patent being maintained. It proved to be an extremely enlightening experience enhanced by being shared with a group from the Max Planck Institute. 

I wonder if I have forgotten or never knew the public policy reason why the EPO has an opposition procedure.  In this case it seemed a minor skirmish in a long-term battle.  It certainly wasn't effective in terms of dispute resolution or for truly testing the validity of the patent as most of the serious grounds of attack were not admitted for being filed late.  Therefore anyone who inspects the file will not know what the Board's true opinion was. Certainly we hope that the UK Patent Office procedure will be quicker and perhaps more decisive because it is not binding.  After all there is no appeal from the Board of Appeal.

14-15 September 2005 Cambridge

I was off in Cambridge again last week attending another conference. The 7th Cambridge Enterprise Conference. This one was mostly about entrepreneurship. It was a bit weird. There seemed to be lots of press and media people but the conference didn't itself get any media coverage. There were a number of entrepreneurial companies there surrounded by representatives of quite a bit of money, a flock of patent agents, a few law firms, various university types and a host of other parasitic type advisory companies.

I wasn't sure whether I was attending because I was a student interested in the relationship between such businesses and their lawyers and advisers, an entrepreneur forming a new business of my own or looking for business. One of the alleged themes of the conference was learning from other people's mistakes. However, hardly anybody was prepared to admit to any mistakes. I put a question to one of the panels.  I asked them to tell us their greatest mistake. That was of course the most interesting part of the conference.