FabLab Manchester: Introduction to Intellectual Property

















I have already mentioned FabLab Manchester in my articles on Eddie Kirby's presentation to Daresbury on 16 July 2011 and my visit to the Manchester FabLab on 5 Aug 2011.

On 12 Oct 2011 I chaired a seminar on Intellectual Property and Licensing at FabLab Manchester. We had a good turnout with about 40 attendees which included artists, designers, inventors and entrepreneurs. Some had travelled a considerable distance to attend the event. One from as far away as Inverness.

I started the session with an Introduction to Intellectual Property. I was followed by patent agent Tom Hutchinson on "Practical Intellectual Property". Tom carried out research into additive manufacturing technologies before he qualified as a patent agent so he was particularly well suited to speak to the FabLab community. The last speaker was Michael Sandys, a partner of QualitySolicitors Jackson & Canter. Michael spoke on licensing and enforcement. Intriguingly, his talk was entitled "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly regarding Licensing and Enforcement."

On the other side of the Pennines the Leeds and Sheffield inventors' clubs were lucky enough to hear from a FabLab Manchester user. Jane Keats, a young New Zealand designer, focused on FabLabs in her presentation "Factories of the Future". I reported her talk in my NIPC Inventors Club blog. Another report of Jane's talk appears in the Leeds Inventors Group blog.

We in IP North West are very enthusiastic about FabLab Manchester and the FabLab movement in general and wish to help them all we can. We shall be doing that in a number of ways through clinics, publications and presentations. If anybody has any comment about FabLab, additive manufacturing or its technologies, do get in touch with me through my contact form, Facebook, Linkedin, Xing or twitter or call me on 0161 850 0080.

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