Baron Warren Redfern helps UK IPO Create IP Equip Tool for UK Business

Leading IP Firm Baron Warren Redfern, provide top patent and trademark attorneys in the UK and throughout Europe and have recently provided much of the written content for an innovative new on-line training tool, which has been launched with a great fanfare by the UK Intellectual Property Office (UK IPO).

IP Equip is a pioneering new facility designed to teach general business advisers more about the basics of intellectual property (IP), so when they encounter new businesses they can identify the IP present, and help the business make the right choices about how to protect it. BWR partner Jerry Bridge-Butler wrote large sections of the straight talking content.

The minister in charge of IP, Viscount Younger of Leckie, officially launched IP Equip at a well-attended ceremony in Birmingham. The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills announced five other new UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) initiatives at the same time, under the IP for Business banner.

Viscount Younger also wrote to Mr Bridge-Butler to thank him personally for his input in the project, which came as part of his role on the working group set up by the UK IPO to design and build IP Equip.

The training tool is made up of four modules, namely patents, trademarks, designs and copyright. Each one takes about 20 minutes to complete, and comprises a number of interactive pages. In each instance there is a case study video, which explains how each of these areas of IP have benefitted particular businesses, and a number of question and answer sections. It is presented in the government’s eye-catching new webpage design format.

Mr Bridge-Butler said: “IP Equip bridges the gap between the need for basic information on IP on the ground, and the relatively high starting point of formal legal advice obtainable from a Patent or Trade Mark Attorney. This realm is traditionally inhabited by the kind of low-cost business adviser to whom a new company may turn for other services, such as a bank loan, the setting up of a new company, accountancy advice and so on. IP Equip is a training tool for such professionals.

“Therefore, the principal aim of IP Equip is to arm anyone who advises new businesses with sufficient information to identify where IP may exist, and how to go about protecting it. But as a consequence of its straightforward structure, IP Equip can also provide anyone with this knowledge. In particular, personnel at existing businesses who want to brush up on their IP awareness, or who want to find out about a subject area new to them, will find the tool very useful.”

A key innovation in IP Equip is the entry into the teaching modules, which the working group fashioned as four basic questions, which could apply to any new or existing business. The questions apply to the four key areas of IP, but were reduced to their most simple form, so anyone could immediately understand them, even if they had no notion of their relevance.

For example, the first question asks if the business has a name or branding, which it is hard to imagine would not be the case. If so, the user enters the trademark section, and learns that their name is a trademark which should be protected. For patents, the user is asked if their business develops new products, technology or processes, and if so they find out about the relevance patents may have to their enterprise.

You can access IP Equip at www.ipo.gov.uk/equip/

Baron Warren Redfern are patent and trademark attorney specialists and can help with patent applications, design and copyright. Visit the website for more information on how to register a trademark.

About Baron Warren Redfern

Baron Warren Redfern is a leading firm of UK and European Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys.
Specialist area’s include intellectual property, Patents applications, Trade Marks and Registered Design.