13 January 2020
Meet our delivery partner: Bang Creations and London IP
Are you an inventor or innovator? Our delivery partners Bang Creations, an international product design and innovations agency, started running their workshop, Design and protect your product to maximise sales, over six years ago, alongside London IP, a boutique firm of patent and trademark attorneys that specializes in helping clients acquire, maintain and enforce IP rights. The workshop is split in two halves to help you with the intellectual property (IP) of a product and how to ensure that you design a commercially viable, marketable product.
The first half of the programme is led by Bang Creations, who have worked with multi-nationals through to start-ups and inventors for over 20 years. Bang also share their own experience of inventing, manufacturing and selling their own products internationally via Kickstarter and online via sites such as Amazon.
It can be very difficult to work out which question you answer first and how to organise all the activity into an efficient plan.
The first part helps you to formulate a plan, covering:
- How to design your product to maximise its unique selling points
- How to evaluate the method of manufacture and production
- What volumes you should work to
- How to cost the product and calculate your retail pricing strategy
- How to ensure the design works through to the branding and how to get your product into the marketplace
The workshop concludes with how to execute that plan, how to brief a design agency, what to expect for your investment and how and when to prototype.
Once your head is buzzing with the images of your product, how it can be designed to be market ready, and the plans of getting it to market are formulating in your head, you will be wondering “How do I protect this idea?” The second half of the workshop is delivered by London IP, who will run through how to obtain registered forms of Intellectual Property (IP) protection for your product, namely patents and design registrations, as well as guidance on avoiding infringement of existing IP rights and avoiding pitfalls with IP ownership.
London IP’s David Warrilow, a chartered patent and trademark attorney, runs the other half of the workshop. Here David explains why IP is critical to consider before launching a new product…
Avoiding infringement of existing IP rights, protecting a new product, and IP ownership are all crucial matters. The British Library wanted a workshop that can help entrepreneurs and small and start-up businesses who wish to take their idea to market but are confused on what to do next.
- Do you protect your idea, or do you go straight to prototype?
- How do you work out if your idea is any good and worth investing in? Should you even do it?
- How do you engage a product design agency- and if you do, what should you expect?
- How do you plan out a development journey and very importantly what are the costs?
Infringement
Even if a product is completely new it can still infringe existing IP rights.
Our seminar explains why and how you can avoid infringement issues. It is important to consider infringement issues early on when developing new products to avoid wasting money on the detailed design and tooling for a product that can’t be sold.
At the seminar we give the real-life example of ‘Mr T’, who spent over £200,000 before finding out his product infringed a patent and he had to close his start-up business. Had Mr T come to our seminar that might not have happened.
Protection
Many entrepreneurs are not aware that soon as a new product has been non-confidentially disclosed it is impossible to obtain valid patent and design protection in most countries unless applications have already been filed.
At our seminar we provide guidance as to when and where to file both patent and design applications, and run through some useful filing strategies.
We also explain the reality of seeking IP protection in terms of costs and timescales, and reasons why you might wish to consider protection.
For example, did you know that if you have a UK patent granted your business can have its corporation tax (on profits related to the invention) halved?
IP Ownership
If you pay someone to build you a house you own the house once the work is done.
Q: If you pay someone to design you a product (or do any other work that generates IP rights) will you own the IP rights to the product?
A: Not necessarily, and the law is counterintuitive this leads to many disputes.
At our seminar we tell you how to keep ownership of the IP rights that are created as a product and its marketing materials are developed.
From having protected the interior design of the new Routemaster bus, registered the names of Zayn Malik, Sister Sledge and footballer Jamie Vardy as trademarks, patented a new fingerprinting technique for the Metropolitan Police, and helped hundreds of small businesses and individuals with their first forays into the world of intellectual property, London IP has extensive experience working with all sizes of clients from all sectors to provide high quality, affordable IP advice.
Case Study – Improvements In Helmets
J Brett realised her product idea after attending one of our workshops and one-to-one sessions at the British Library. Bang Creations invented her idea and London IP patented it, before J Brett took her licensed product to manufacturers to licence it.
Design by Bang Creations Ltd:
UK Patent Pending No. GB1801734.3 by London IP Ltd:
A helmet 1 comprises a recess 2 adapted to house a head of a user and a chinstrap 6, 8 to secure the helmet to the head of a user. The chinstrap 6, 8 is formed of substantially inelastic material and is securable under a user's chin by releasably attaching a first connector 10 to a second connector 11. Each connector 10, 11 is attached to a portion of chinstrap 6, 8 and the portion of each chinstrap is attached to a portion of elastic material 12, 13 such that the portion of chinstrap 6, 8 is extensible under force applied by a user and retractable by contraction of the portion of elastic material. The helmet further comprises a first clamping mechanism 19 and a second clamping mechanism 21 operable by a user to releasably clamp the chinstraps 6, 8 such that a chosen length of the chinstrap extends from the helmet.
Other businesses who have taken their ideas through to market after attending one of our workshops include a thermoelectric camping stove, a hair tapestry device, and a £35k carbon fibre trimaran sailing boat.
One-to-ones
You can also receive expert confidential advice on your product idea with one-to-one sessions with David and Stefan, which are made up of 30 minutes with David and 30 minutes with Stefan. This is only open to those who have attended the workshop as they come prepared with the relevant questions and information to make the session as efficient as possible.
For more information about Bang Creations, visit their website.
For more information about London IP, visit their website.
You can see all of the British Library’s Business & IP Centre’s upcoming workshops and events here.