Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Business and IP Centres

Cambridge City Centre

Author Cmglee Licence CC BY-SA 3.0 Source Wikipedia Cambridge

Jane Lambert

The British Library Business & IP Centre National Network is a nationwide network of public libraries that are affiliated to the British Library Business and IP Centre.  They offer free access to databases, market research, journals, directories and reports worth thousands of pounds and hold free or low-cost events and workshops such as business planning, marketing and intellectual property.  The latest libraries to join that network are Cambridge Central Library and Peterborough Central Library.

In Where to get free basic Information on Intellectual Property 18 Dec 2013 NIPC Southeast, I wrote:

"Whatever the nature of your business you are bound to have some intellectual property. It may be a patent for a groundbreaking new invention or it may be something simple like the goodwill that is attached to your business or a secret recipe. Whatever it is you will need some basic information and maybe some advice."

I added

"A good place to start is the British Library Business and IP Centre in St Pancras. They have a lot of useful information about business networking, business planning, IP and market research. There is a good introductory video by Anthony Lau who invented a cycle lock and started a business to market his invention. The Centre holds frequent workshops and seminars on all those topics. To access these resources you will need a reader's card which is issued free on production of a passport or driving licence and a utility bill or other evidence of residence. The British Library also has groups on Linkedin and Facebook which you can join on-line."

It is still worth visiting the British Library which is located literally next door to St. Pancras and a very short walk from King's Cross, but now many of those resources are close to hand.

Cambridge Central Library offers access to national and international databases of patents and design and trade mark registrations, business and consumer information, reference books, workshops and seminars and facilities for networking. The library hosts occasional IP clinics in its small interview room. These are free 30-minute consultations with local patent attorneys.  Contact details and other information is available on the CIPA website.

Peterborough offers access to databases and resources that are similar to those at Cambridge. It also holds workshops and seminars.  However, the patent clinic takes place in the offices of Baldwin's a local firm of accountants.  Again, particulars are available on the CIPA website. 

Local networks that may interest entrepreneurs and other creative and inventive folk in Cambridge and Peterborough include The Cambridge Network and Cambridge Angels. The Cambridge Network describes itself as

"a membership organisation based in the vibrant high technology cluster of Cambridge, UK. We bring people together - from business and academia - to meet and share ideas, encouraging collaboration and partnership for shared success."

Cambridge Angels "are a collaborative Cambridge-based group, actively mentoring and investing in innovative entrepreneurial teams and their ideas, to achieve returns and help realise their full potential. We have a strong ethos of backing merit and supporting entrepreneurship." Information about private equity and venture capital investors is available on the Business Investors and Funding Networks page of the Cambridgeshire County Council website.

Anybody from the East of England wishing to discuss this article or IP for business startups generally may call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact page.

Why IP East?

Source Wikipedia

Jane Lambert

The East of England consists of the historic counties of Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Norfolk and Suffolk which covers an area of 19,120 square kilometres and had a population of over 5.8 million in 2011. The reason why this region is important to us is that it hosts one of the highest concentrations of research based businesses in the country which are clustered around its universities in Cambridge, Colchester, Norwich and elsewhere. The region is also a centre of creativity with the Royal Opera House's Tamar Manoukian Production Workshop in Thurrock and the Norwich University of the Arts.

It is therefore unsurprising that businesses and individuals in the East of England filed 1,821 patent applications in 2011 (exceeded only by South East England and London and well ahead of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland with 931, 519 and 251 according to the IPO's Facts and Figures 2011 and 2012 Calendar Years).  The East of England was also fourth in the number of trade mark and fifth in the number of registered design applications.

Our chambers want to help those businesses protect and exploit their investment in brands, design, technology and works of art and literature in any way we can. Many of us were born, live or were educated in the region and all of us have some connection with, or interest in, the East of England.  Members of our IP and Technology Group believe that we can help with hood independent advice on IP strategy, that is to say identifying the optimum legal protection for a business's income stream whether that be by patents, registered or registered designs, trade secrets or otherwise. Our colleagues in Atlas Tax Chambers can do the same with tax. We can advise businesses or their professional intermediaries in the region on any difficult issue of IP law that may arise. We can draft complex legal instruments and as a last result provide representation in the IPO, Intellectual Property Enterprise and Patents Courts, before arbitrators or mediators or other tribunals and dispute resolution proceedings.

We shall do this in collaboration with other professionals, businesses and universities in the region. We shall help them set up and run workshops, seminars, clinics, inventors' and entrepreneurs' clubs in the East of England and support those that already exist as and where we can.  We have done similar work in the North of England for the last 10 years and are now doing the same in London and the South East.  If you want to participate iu any of those initiatives, please call me on 01603 343030 during office hours or use my contact form at any time.