Working with Middlesex

On Monday 3 Feb 2014 I gave a talk on intellectual property to a mixed group of LLM and LLB students and staff at the Hendon campus of Middlesex University. As I had a fairly mixed audience that ranged from academics and professionals specializing in IP to undergraduates I started with a general introduction to IP which covered the topics mentioned in my slides and handout of the 26 June 2013. Stressing the territorial limitations of intellectual property rights I mentioned the intellectual property treaties and the TRIPs agreement. Topics that I had discussed in detail in my presentation to the Arab-British Chamber of Commerce just before Christmas in TRIPS: The Linchpin of the World Intellectual Property System. Finally, I focused on bilateral investment treaties which I introduced in "Bilateral Investment Treaties: Eli Lilly and Co. v Government of Canada" 27 July 2013 NIPC Law and is now the subject of an article that I published in Sweet & Maxwell's EIPR last December (Jane Lambert "Bilateral Investment Treaties: A Remedy for SME?" (Dec 2013) [2013] EIPR 759).

The audience seemed to like my presentation - or at least they were very polite about it - and over lunch with Professor Joshua Castellino, Dean of the Law School, I discussed ways in which my chambers and I could contribute to the already extensive work that the University is doing for its own students and staff and businesses and the wider community in Hendon, North London and beyond.  Possible areas of consolidation include the launch of an inventors club along the lines of the one I already chair in Leeds to transferring the clinics that I operate in chambers to Hendon. I also told Professor Castelino about some of the initiatives that are taking place elsewhere in London such as the British Library's Business and IP Centre.

With some 40,000 students on campuses in London, Dubai, Malta and Mauritius, Middlesex University is a massive institution which already offers a wide range of services for business. These include research and consultancy, technology transfer and knowledge transfer schemes for which various sources of funding are available. The University's clients include some of the largest businesses in the UK including ASDA, Halifax, Royal Mail and Toshiba.

If as is likely my discussions with Prof Castellino and his colleagues bear fruit I shall mention it in this blog. In the meantime should anyone from the University wish to attend the next London IP clinic which will be held in chambers on 26 Feb 2014 he or she should make an appointment with George on 020 7670 1550 or complete our London IP clinics form. If you want to discuss this article you may call me on 020 7404 5252 during normal office hours or you can message me through my contact form. You can also tweet me, write on my wall or send me a message through G+, Linkedin or Xing.