24 January 2006

Leeds Inventors Club: You can always say Dai

You lucky inventors of Leeds have a treat next month. My very good friend Dai Davis of Nabarro Nathanson will be speaking on making money from IP. His talk will cover every aspect of commercialization from licensing to manufacturing yourself.

Dai knows what he is talking about. Having read physics at Oxford and computer science at Newcastle Dai built up the IP/IT department of Hepworth & Chadwick (now part of Eversheds) into one of the best in the country. He is a really good speaker and we are lucky to get him.

The evening will be chaired by Chris Hemingway of Bailey Walsh LLP. Chris has also been in the news recently having made the first request for a Patent Office opinion on infirngement in Lenighan v Heritage Bathrooms. As I mentioned in my other blog on 14 Dec 2005, I read the request last month and my view and I thought the issues were fairly clear but Mr Rowlatt, the examiner, was not so sure:

"Given the construction I have placed on claims 1 and 2 as set out above, I conclude that if, in normal use of the Showerbath product, the screen is prevented from being swung outwards over the edge of the bath by the engagement of the sealing strip with the shoulder of the bath then that product infringes claims 1 and 2 of EP(UK) 0801532, but that if the screen can be swung outwards over the edge of the bath then the Showerbath product does not infringe the patent."

Delphic or what!

Finally, I should like to thank everyone who sat on my panel at the Leeds Inventors Group on 18 Jan 2006. We had a very good discussion. Thanks in particular to Clare Adcock representing the CIPA and Ged Doonan of the Business and Patents Library.

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