Intellectual property, an introduction for small businesses

Are you a small business owner who is struggling with IP issues or do you run a startup and you’re finding it tricky to get to grips with how you should protect your IP assets? Well, according to recent research, you’re not alone. A survey conducted by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) led the…

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3D printing and intellectual property

While the seemingly thorny 3D printing issue has only reared in the UK in the last few years, the technology itself has been developing steadily since the 1980s. Machines with the ability to print objects came to the attention of mainstream consumers here in the UK and become more of a concern for businesses as…

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Why life expectancy is shaping copyright law

In Aprils’ budget the government of Canada announced plans to extend copyright protection for artists from 50 years to 70 years. This means that rather than enjoying copyright protection on recorded works for 50 years after release, artists and record companies won’t have to worry about songs passing into the public domain until much later.…

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What does plain packaging mean for intellectual property?

Following votes in the House of Commons and House of Lords in March in favour of standardising cigarette packaging, we could see rules finalised that will force cigarette packets sold in England to adopt the same uniform look. David Cameron recently repeated his party’s commitment to introducing ‘healthy’ packaging in their manifesto. What this means…

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How IP Rules Are Changing Music Streaming Services

The Blurred Lines copyright case is still contributing plenty of column inches in the press, months after the judgement was officially announced. While many in the music industry have spoken about their apprehensiveness over the possible impact of the ruling on the creativity of artists, it’s piracy rather than plagiarism that has generally speaking posed…

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Intellectual property and undergraduates

According to statistics from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills, a degree can increase the earning potential of graduates in the UK by an estimated £165,000 for men and £250,000 for women over the course of their working lives. So, why do many of the most successful inventors and entrepreneurs of our time leave…

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Should intellectual property be taught in schools?

Years after you’ve left the classroom it’s easy to wonder exactly why you spent valuable lesson time learning about Pythagoras’s theorem or the phases of the moon, though the former is admittedly on occasion useful when it comes to putting up shelves. Alongside academic achievement that propels children on to higher education there is the…

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