Thought for Food: IP and Takeaway and Restaurant Innovation

Jane Lambert

What possible link could there be between IP and fast food?  Lots when you think of it. Trade Marks, passing off, geographical indications and of course all sorts of improvements in food preparation and distribution technology that can be patented.

That will explain why Gary Townley of the Intellectual Property Office will be speaking and exhibiting at the Takeaway & Restaurant Innovation Expo  2017 that takes place at the ExCel Centre today and tomorrow. Gary is also presenting a course on IP for the food and drink industry at Northampton Central Library on Thursday.

IP in the production, preparation, marketing and distribution is a subject of which I have had a lot of experience having been in some important cases and having advised and represented some rising stars in the industry. If you are engaged in agriculture, food preparation, distribution or catering I should be glad to talk to you. Call +44 (0)20 7404 5252 during office hours or send me me a message through my contact form.

Mums Enterprise Roadshow - London

The Business Design Centre

Author Matt Brown
Licence Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic
Source Wikipedia

Jane Lambert

In my Inventors' Club blog today I mentioned the Mums Enterprise Roadshow which is holding a series of "child-friendly work and business exhibitions helping mums on a mission whether that be retraining, finding flexible work, starting up or growing a business."

The first of those events is taking place at the Business Design Centre in Islington today. According to the event webpage, there are some interesting talks and exhibition.  If you happen to be in London today and have the time it would seem to be an event that is well worth attending.  The Centre is very close to Angel and Highbury and Islington tube stations and is on several bus routes. Parking is not quite so easy if you come by car, but the website says there is space for 250 vehicles at the nearby Hilton.

If any of my readers who attend the event would care to report on what they saw and did, I should be very glad to publish what they have to day.

Should you want to discuss this article or innovation in general, call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form

London leads Start-up and Scale-up Tables for Digital Enterprise

Author Dbachman
Creative Commons Licence

Jane Lambert

The European Digital City Index (EDCi) was produced by Nesta as part of the European Digital Forum, EDCi provides information about the strengths and weaknesses of local economies in relation to the formation and growth of digital businesses.

The index applies a number of different criteria in drawing up its index which are set out in the Methodology section of its website.  Applying those criteria, Nesta produced the following table of leading European ciies for start-ups:

1. London
2. Stockholm
3. Amsterdam 
4. Helsinki
5. Paris
6. Berlin
7. Copenhagen
8. Dublin
9. Barcelona
10. Vienna.

For scale-ups, the table was:

1. London
2. Stockholm
3. Paris
4. Helsinki
5. Amsterdam
6. Copenhagen
7. Berlin
8. Munich
9. Dublin
10. Vienna

Why London? ESCi explains: 

"The city’s substantial financial sector is undoubtedly a major benefit: not only is London’s venture capital industry the most developed in Europe, but the presence of many financial services firms helps promote a growing number of fintech and crowdfunding startups, like Seedrs, Funding Circle, Transferwise, Wonga and DueDil. London is also the accelerator and coworking capital of Europe, as well as boasting a number of world-class universities. Its vibrant startup scene is supported by a strong creative cluster around ‘Silicon Roundabout’ and, despite Brexit fears, the city still attracts significant talent from all over the world."

Successful start-ups include Deliveroo, Made.com, AppNexus and Borro.  Shazam, Transferwise, Wonga, FarFetch, Zoopla and Lastminute.com are examples of successful scale-ups.

If anyone wants to discuss the legal aspects of starting a digital or any other business, call me on 020 7404 5252 or send me a message through my contact form.

Business and IP Centre: Innovating for Growth

Jane Lambert

Two opportunities announced recently by the British Library Business and IP Centre:

• Innovating for Growth: Scale - ups: three-month small business support programme offering over £10,000 worth of specialist advice; and 
• Innovating for Growth: Start-ups: Two-day course.

The advice that successful candidates on the scale-up programme will receive is as follows: developing a growth strategy, refining the candidate's business model, product and service innovation, creating a marketing strategy, building a brand, maximizing intellectual property and business and market intelligence.

Application date 16 March 2017.

The two-day start-up course covers business planning, finance, marketing and other practical information and introductions to the resources of the Business and IP Centre and intellectual property.

Further information on the Business and IP Centre website (see Innovating for Growth: Scale - ups).