Innovation: Giving the Client hat he really needs and not necessarily what he asks for.
My instructions, which came from a business support agency, were to supply “assistance with design registration and trade marking” to one of its clients. I called the client and found out that he had invented a new product for use in his industry. He had attended the Leeds Patent Clinic and been told by a patent attorney that his invention was not patentable but he could still apply for a trade mark and registered design. I asked him why he wanted those registrations and he replied that they were to protect his new invention. I asked him whether he was making or selling his invention. He replied that he had not even made a prototype and what he really wanted was some help with prototyping.
In my written advice I gave him the names and contact details of three reliable product development consultants, one in Harrogate, one in Liverpool and one in York. I advised him of the legal protection that is available for brands, designs and new technologies and in particular of the law of confidence and unregistered design right.
The last I heard was that he had contacted one the product development consultants saving for the time being the money that he would have spent on a trade mark application for a product that he may never make or sell.
