Useful Seminars at the British Library

British Library

Author: Jack1956  Copyright waived by the owner

Jane Lambert

If you own, manage or invest in a startup or other small business, you should check out the Business and Intellectual Property Centre at the British Library at 86 Euston Road. If you don't know the area it is almost next door to St Pancras station and a short walk from King's Criss and Euston.  It has a massive collection of business publications with access to even more online.  It is open to anyone with a reader's card which can be obtained upon showing evidence of identity and residence.  The Library also has Linkedin and Facebook groups.

If you are new to the Centre you could do worse than attend the free workshop on 13 Jan 2020 entitled Introduction to using the  Business and IP Centre.  The seminar starts at 10:30 and continues to 13:00. atter which there will be a chance to meet the speakers, staff another attendees informally over refreshments  On the same day, there is an introduction to intellectual property entitled Can I protect a business idea starting at 14:00 and ending at 17:00 which is also free.   If you miss either of those talks they are repeated on 27 Jan (see Introduction to using the Business & IP Centre and Can I protect a business idea 27 Jan 2020).

After you have attended these introductory lectures you mat want to try some of the others.  Seminars that I would attend if I lived nearer London include

• How do I search registered designs  14  Jan 14:00 to 17:00  charge £20;
• How do I search patents 16 Jan 10:00 to 13:30 charge £20;
• How to protect your IP abroad  22 Jan 10:00 to 12:30 free; and
• How do I use British Library collections for my business research? 29 Jan 10:00 to 13:00 charge £20.

Having founded and chaired the inventors' clubs at Leeds, Liverpool and Sheffield, I am delighted to see that the British Library will launch an Inventos Club on 27 Jan 2019 between 18:00 and 20:49 and I will support that in any way I can,

Anyone wishing to discuss this article or any of the issues mentioned in it should call me on 020 7404 5252 or send me a message through my contact page,

Branding - Catching Them Young

Court Room at the Bangkok KidZania

Author ProjectManhattan
Licence Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International

Source Wikipedia KidZania 

On Friday, the son of my former ward celebrated his 8th birthday. For a birthday treat his parents and I took him to the London KidZania which describes itself as "An Indoor City Run by Kids." Located in the Westfield shopping centre in Shepherds Bush it consists of 75,000 square feet of replica child size shops and offices on two floors where children aged between 4 and 14 can try their hands at all sorts of occupations.

Children and their accompanying adults pass through immigration where they are issued with wristbands. Activities are paid for with kidZos which is KidZania's private currency though food and drink have to be purchased in sterling.  Activities for adults are limited to queueing with children, watching their role play, consuming refreshments and riding a bus.

Like a lot of children's attractions, KidZania is a transatlantic concept, but from Mexico rather than the United  States.  The first KidZania opened as  La Ciudad de los Niños (Kids' City) in Mexico City in 1999.  La Ciudad was rebranded as Kidzania in 2006 when a second children's city was opened in Monterey. The Mexican company KidZania S.A.P.I. de C.V. has registered the word KIDZANIA as an EU trade mark for a wide range of goods and services in classes 6, 16, 20, 21, 25, 41, 42 and 43 with effect from 3 Jan 2003. It also holds many other trade marks and trade mark applications relating to KidZania around the world.

The company has franchised KidZania theme parks in 20 countries, mainly in Latin America (Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica and Mexico) and Asia (India, Indonesia, Japan, Kuwait, Malaysia, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates).  So far, there are none in the United States and only three in Europe (Lisbon, London and Moscow) bit that is about to change with planned openings in Chicago, Dallas, New York and Paris.

Activities offered at the London KidZania are branded by Alder Hey Children's NHS Foundation Trust, Aljazeera Media Network, the Bank of England, British Airways, Cadbury, Costa, Dorsett International, Eat Natural, Gourmet Burger Kitchen, Global, H & M, Hamptons, Innocent, K-Market, Metro, Middlesex County Cricket Club, Mission Deli, Nintendo, People's Dispensary for Sick Animals, Roland, Snazaroo, The Original Tour and other organizations.  Alder Hey hospital, for example, allows children to role play as baby care nurses, paramedics and even surgeons.  Cadbury instructs them in chocolate making. 

About the only role plays for which no provision was made in London was the law which I would have found strange as a child for I knew that I wanted to be a barrister from a very early age. However, Wikipedia reports that there is a court at the Bangkok KidZania and there are others in other cities. 

The investment of some of those brand owners is impressive.  British Airways, for example, has contributed part of an aircraft fuselage and flight simulation equipment and many members of the KidZania staff wear British Airways uniforms.  Clearly, those brand holders see marketing or other opportunities in KidZania.

Our 8 year old tried his hand at print and TV journalism with Metro and Aljazeera, chocolate making with Cadbury and flight training with British Airways among other activities.  There was quite a lot of queueing for one or other of his parents during which time I relaxed in Costa's coffee shops. I also watched him perform in Aljazeera's TV studio and I have a new keyring with a photo of the little boy in an airline pilot's uniform.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article or the legal protection of branding generally by trade mark registration, the law of passing off, geographical indications or otherwise should call me on 020  7404 5252 during usual office hours or send me a message through my contact page.  I should also like to wish all my readers a very happy New Year.