The idea for this short guide came to me several years ago, while I was teaching post graduate university students, in a London university. They were all reading for a Masters degree in ‘media and communications’, and were required to learn about intellectual property as part of their formal teaching. As part of my course, the students were required to invent something. It didn’t need to be actually possible. So, for example, we had pills that could cause you to change sex for a day, bread that could make you speak a chosen language fluently, gloves that acted as ovens for food dishes, secretly inflatable bras, paw wiping gadgets – well, you get the idea! Those classes were huge fun. The students had to create an advertising website for their product, and consider all the issues relating to getting the product manufactured, all the advertising processes, all the sales processes, and so on. Each step of the process, from idea to point of sale, has different intellectual property challenges, which the students had to identify and then strategise and explain the measures they would put into place.
Some of my incredibly inventive students went on to market the (less fanciful) inventions, secure in the knowledge that they knew exactly how to protect every single aspect of the process, from start to finish, with the learning that they had gained from my classes.
I knew that what they had was precious knowledge that every new business owner, every entrepreneur, and every shed-side inventor should have, and not just after the inspiration strikes, but before it strikes.
So many businesses get caught out, so many lose the right to profit from their hard work, and all because they are lacking knowledge that should be available to all.
This knowledge doesn’t come cheap. A typical university Masters degree student is paying between £13,000 and £19,000 pounds for the year’s tuition. It’s beyond the reach of most small business owners, just to get the IP knowledge needed for their business.
I’m one of the lucky ones. I went to university, to law school, was called to the Bar of England and Wales, and got to play in the hugely interesting world of intellectual property. And now, after seventeen years of teaching law to equally lucky law students, I am writing courses for my own company – the Brand Protection Academy. You can find us at www.brandprotectionacademy.co.uk
Our aim is to make intellectual property courses available at insanely cheap prices, so that they are affordable for all. This little guide is a starter; something to whet your appetite, and to start you on the way to realising how much legal help is out there, waiting for you to run with it and make your business really grow.
Some of my incredibly inventive students went on to market the (less fanciful) inventions, secure in the knowledge that they knew exactly how to protect every single aspect of the process, from start to finish, with the learning that they had gained from my classes.
I knew that what they had was precious knowledge that every new business owner, every entrepreneur, and every shed-side inventor should have, and not just after the inspiration strikes, but before it strikes.
So many businesses get caught out, so many lose the right to profit from their hard work, and all because they are lacking knowledge that should be available to all.
This knowledge doesn’t come cheap. A typical university Masters degree student is paying between £13,000 and £19,000 pounds for the year’s tuition. It’s beyond the reach of most small business owners, just to get the IP knowledge needed for their business.
I’m one of the lucky ones. I went to university, to law school, was called to the Bar of England and Wales, and got to play in the hugely interesting world of intellectual property. And now, after seventeen years of teaching law to equally lucky law students, I am writing courses for my own company – the Brand Protection Academy. You can find us at www.brandprotectionacademy.co.uk
Our aim is to make intellectual property courses available at insanely cheap prices, so that they are affordable for all. This little guide is a starter; something to whet your appetite, and to start you on the way to realising how much legal help is out there, waiting for you to run with it and make your business really grow.
