Meetings/Hepworth Browne

This was a meeting at a free IP surgery in ideaSpace. What's written here is not legal advice, but is useful and interesting.

Most interestingly, Hepworth Browne are interested in running patent, IP workshops for makespace/in makespace. There would be minimal cost for such an event and it could include information about patents, trademarks, etc.

Getting a trademark: name needs to be unique. Some potential issues with Makespace, need to look in to them. Names that are overly descriptive are borderline.

Costs to register a trademark depend on what, where, how many categories it is registered in. For example, if only registering the name for use in food and drink industry it is much cheaper than registering it for 10 different areas. UK has 45 'classes' that a mark can be registered in.

• Just registration: £200 (ie DIY, handle all law yourself)
• Registration + legal fees £450ish assuming no difficulties.

There is a thing called a 'rightstart' application where a company pays half the fees, only paying the full amount if the trademark is registered successfully.

Notes about work in Makespace and Patents

When working on a patentable idea in a space like Makespace, users must be aware that sharing, publishing, etc without an NDA is likely to make a patent impossible. Makespace should have some framework in place to allow people to work on patentable ideas (at cost, presumably).