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The aim of the Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership is "to create one of the fastest growing economies in the UK," One of the agencies for achieving that aim is Cumbria Libraries' Business and Intellectual Property Centre (BIPC Cumbria). BIPC Cumbria is part of a national network of regional and local libraries that are linked to the British Library's Business and IP Centre. Those centres advise and assist entrepreneurs with courses, information online and in print and one-to-one consultation on everything from business planning to patent searching.
There have been Patent Information Units or PatLibs libraries in Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle and Sheffield for years. Many of those libraries already hosted patent clinics, workshops and inventors' clubs and carried out patent, trade mark and design searches for local residents. I gave talks at Manchester and Liverpool central libraries and founded and chaired the Liverpool Inventors Club. The BIPC network was formed between those PatLib libraries. the British Library and the Intellectual Property Office. In addition to the services offered by each library locally, there is a BIPC Linkedin Group and Facebook page.
BIPC Cumbria is based at Barrow and Carlisle Libraries. Neither library was a PatLib library but both have extensive online resources. They hold workshops and other events and have links with the Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership, Chamber of Commerce and other organizations. While they do not seem to host a patent clinic, they offer basic advice on intellectual property through the IPO's YouTube videos.
With a nuclear power station at Sellafield, a naval shipyard at Barrow and a pharmaceutical plant at Ulverston there are likely to be many local residents with transferable skills in engineering and manufacturing. The University of Cumbria has campuses in Carlisle, Barrow, Ambleside and Barrow as well as Lancaster and London. There are two national parks nearby. There is a lot to be said for doing business in Cumbria.
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