Intellectual Property rights explored over networking breakfast
Intellectual Property is not something a teacher might mark with as theirs in the staff room fridge, but IP issues can trigger just as heated battles when conflict occurs.
‘What’s in the bag Ed?’ is a cry that goes up each week before Edward Humphrey-Evans launches into his one minute presentation, for each week he will pull out of his bag a product to illustrate the importance of protecting your intellectual property, not least when so many brand names become associated with a generic product.
This morning’s meeting of the Newbury Business Group, West Berkshire’s foremost networking organisation, was positively intimate as the holiday season begins to tempt members to foreign shores, but there was still a great crowd to hear Edward talk about his business,HEIPS, for the weekly 10 minute presentation.
Patents, designs, trademarks and copyright are his stock in trade. Edward explained how his company assists individuals and companies in the filing of applications to register intellectual property rights - patent applications, registered design applications and trade mark applications in the United Kingdom, Europe and elsewhere. HEIPS can also advise on copyright issues.
What does this actually mean though?
Essentially, Edward goes into bat with his legal expertise to protect your IP and there were plenty of members around the room that had high praise for him having experienced the benefits of engaging this legal professional. Even with him talking about what he does, the consensus was that people didn’t understand what he offers; just that he does it very well!
There was some excited debate around Meta tags, the code hidden behind websites that can drive traffic to your site through search engines like Google and Bing. A frowned upon and legally dubious tactic involves using competitor’s names, trademarks and brand names within these meta tags to try and get the search engines to send you competitors prospective customers.
In some instances it could simply be a matter of copyright that can easily be dealt with, but what was certain is that one of Edward's legal letters would soon solve the problem - while you focus on your business!
Incidentally, if you want to check out what your own Meta tags say and perhaps that of a competitor it is quite straightforward. On our browser of choice, Mozilla’s Firefox, you simply click Control and U and up will pop the code behind any web page you are currently viewing. The Meta data is normally near the top and the edit button will allow you to search for your name or brand names.
While on Internet Explorer you would click Page/View Source and get a similar view as you would with Firefox. Of course, if you spot the dubious practice described above then clearly we have already revealed who you should contact!
Edward had given us a glimpse into the bewildering world of patent attorneys, and left it clear that his expertise was essential if we want to protect our Intellectual Property.
What's in the bag? Plenty more IP tricks, clearly!