The Internet of Caring Things

Christoffer Wilhelm Eckersberg The Ages of Man
Source Wikimedia Commons

 

Jane Lambert

On Friday 17 Jan 2025, I attended a fascinating seminar entitled Rise and Design - The Internet of Caring Things which was presented from the Northern Design Centre in Gateshead.  "Rise and Design" is the networking service of Design Network North which is a project delivered by RTC North.  I wrote about Rise and Design in Rise and Design Online: A Webinar for Designers in Northeast England on Designing our Way out of Lockdown on 16 June 2020.  I appreciated greatly the informal Friday Zoom meetings that Terry McStea, Head of Design Network North, convened during the pandemic.  For that reason, I support as many Rise and Design events as I can.

The Internet of Caring Things ("IOCT") is a programme developed by the National Innovation Centre Ageing ("NICA").  NICA develops products and services which enhance the quality and extend the duration of human life.  The seminar introduced the IOTC, NICA and some of the companies with which the NICA has collaborated.

Adam Cosheril, a specialist in creating physical prototypes through three-dimensional printing and other additive manufacturing technologies, outlined the services that NICA provides through the IOCT and gave examples of the products that the programme has helped to develop.  These included the prototype for Tinkle Guard Ltd. ("Tinkle Guard"). Adam mentioned his passion for merging creativity with innovation and helping organizations to develop new technologies.

The next speaker was Chris Withers who has created an educational board game called MiBox Live.  This device develops players' numeracy and problem-solving skills through analogies with athletics.  The product's website describes the game and explains the rules through a short video on the "How to Play" page.  Chris explained how he became an inventor and entrepreneur which impressed the audience considerably.

After a refreshment break, Angela Davidson, the inventor and founder of Tinkle Guard, introduced her company's product.  As its name suggests, it is a device for collecting urine samples.  It was originally intended for babies but versions have been made for the elderly and incontinent adults.  Angela was the only speaker who mentioned intellectual property.  I was glad to learn that she had applied for patents for the UK and other European countries.

The last presentation came from Matt Goodman of Active Future.  He set out his company's vision which is instilling a lifelong love of movement in people of all ages.  This includes more than just sports and extends to food and entrepreneurship. The company arranges events and manages projects.  

There are often elevator pitch presentations from members of the audience and further networking after Rise and Design Events.   I do not know whether any took place in Gateshead after Matt's talk because I attended online and the host cut the connection shortly after he had finished.   Even without those encores, we had a good session from which I learnt a lot.   

This event has prompted me to update this website.   Earlier today I wrote about the North East Growth Hub and the Tees Valley Business Board in The LEPs' Successors in Northeast England and removed the links to the former local enterprise partnerships.  I have inserted links to the North East and Tees Valley Business and IP Centres.  The big change in the North East is that some business and IP services are now available throughout the North East Combined Authority area and not just Newcastle Central Library.  Tees Valley Business and IP Centre's website only mentions Stockton right now but that may change if other libraries in the area can participate in the scheme.   I have inserted links to the National Centre for Ageing and IOCT under "Newcastle" in my "Universities" links page.  I have also inserted a whole links page to RTC< Design Network North and Rise and Design.  I have added a link to the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II.  As there has not been a Venturefest in the Tees Valley for some time I have removed that link.  I will try to turn up for Venturefest North East in Newcastle Civic Centre on  18 March 2025.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article may call me on 020 7404 5252 during UK office hours or send me a message through my contact form.

The LEPs' Successors in Northeast England

Newcastle City Centre

Author Anthony Foster Licence CC BY-SA 2.0  Source Wikimedia Commons

 

Jane Lambert

In Guidance for Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and Local and Combined Authorities: Integration of LEP functions into local democratic institutions of 4 Aug 2023, the Department for Levelling Up, the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government and the Department for Business and Trade announced that central government funding to local enterprise partnerships would cease from April 2024 and their functions would be transferred to local authorities.   I discussed the announcement in The End of LEPs in IP Northeast on 8 Aug 2024.

In The Northeast Devolution Deal, I wrote on 9 Jan 2023:

"The integration of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership into the North East MCA will ensure there continues to be a strong and independent local business voice which informs local decision making and strategic economic planning. In absorbing the role and functions of the North East LEP, the North East will deliver a number of functions on behalf of central government departments agreed jointly between government and the North East."

The North East Local Enterprise Partnership's functions were transferred to the North East Combined Authority on 7 May 2024 (see The North East LEP is now part of the North East Combined Authority on the North East Combined Authority's website).  The business support and funding resources previously available through the local enterprise partnership can now be accessed through the North East Growth Hub. The districts comprising the North East Combined Authority area are County Durham, Gateshead, Newcastle, North Tyneside, Northumberland, South Tyneside and Sunderland.

The other local enterprise partnership in the region was the Tees Valley Local Enterprise Partnership.  It has now been replaced by the Tees Valley Business Board.   The Board consists of local business leaders who feed into the work of the Tees Valley Mayor, Combined Authority and Local Authorities, to advise on, establish and help lead projects, schemes and programmes that deliver real change to the local economy.

Because of the transfer of the business support functions from the local enterprise partnerships to local authorities, I have removed the links to the North East LEP amd the Tees Valley LEP and replaced them with links to the North East Growth Hub and the Tees Valley Business Board.

A likely consequence of the transfer of the local enterprise partnerships' functions to local authorities is that local government officials and employees could benefit from training on intellectual property.  On 1 Oct 2024, I delivered a talk on intellectual property for local government officials in London.  I should be glad to deliver a similar talk to the North East and Tees Valley combined authorities or any other local authority or business support agency in the country.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article may call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact page. 

The Northeast Devolution Deal

North East Mayoral Combined Authority

Author DrFrench   Licence CC NY-SA 4.0  Source Wikimedia Commons

 

Jane Lambert

On 28 Dec 2022, Mr Michael Gove MP, Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, and the leaders and mayors of several local authorities in North East England signed an instrument described as the "North East Devolution Deal". That "deal", which does not appear to be legally binding because it is subject to ratification by all partners and the fulfilment of certain statutory requirements, provides for a single authority with a directly elected mayor.

The main terms are as follows:

"The North East electing a directly elected mayor to provide overall vision and leadership, seek the best value for taxpayer’s money, be directly accountable to the city region’s electorate, and to receive new powers on transport, housing and skills. 

Control of a £48 million per year investment fund over 30 years (£34 million revenue and £14 million capital), to be invested by the North East to drive growth and take forward its priorities over the longer term. 

New powers to improve and better integrate local transport, including the ability to introduce bus franchising, control of appropriate local transport functions e.g., local transport plans, and control of a key route network. 

A city region sustainable transport settlement of up to £563 million capital funding, with £5.7 million resource funding for 2022/23 and further funding to be confirmed in line with other eligible areas. The North East MCA  ["mayoral combined authority"] will invest this settlement in a manner which reflects the development of the deal prior to County Durham joining, for the current funding period to 2026/27. 

New powers to better shape local skills provisions to ensure these meet the needs of the local economy. This will include devolution of adult education functions and the core adult education budget, as well as input into the new local skills improvement plans. 

The North East Mayoral Combined Authority will plan and deliver the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) from 2025/26. 

The integration of the North East Local Enterprise Partnership into the North East MCA will ensure there continues to be a strong and independent local business voice which informs local decision making and strategic economic planning. In absorbing the role and functions of the North East LEP, the North East will deliver a number of functions on behalf of central government departments agreed jointly between government and the North East. 

A commitment to explore a local partnership with Great British Railways Transition Team so that the mayor can help shape and improve the local rail offer. 

New powers to drive the regeneration of the area and to build more affordable, more beautiful homes, including compulsory purchase powers and the ability to establish mayoral development corporations. 

To support this, additional £17.4 million for building new homes on brownfield land, subject to sufficient eligible projects for funding being identified. 

£20m of capital funding in this SR period to drive place-based economic regeneration. 

A commitment to developing, in partnership with the Government, an arrangement which ensures close cooperation with the North East’s Police and Crime Commissioners (PCCs), and a key leadership role for the mayor in local resilience and civil contingency planning, preparation and delivery."

The document is 48 pages long and covers 13 topics including "Levelling up Innovation and Clean Energy", "Digital and Connectivity" and "Arts, Culture, Heritage and Sport."

Para 73 of the Deal promises that:

"Domestic public investment in R&D outside the Greater South East will increase by at least 40% by 2030, and over the spending review period by at least one third, with that additional government funding seeking to leverage at least twice as much private sector investment over the long term to stimulate innovation and productivity growth."

HM government promises to build on existing collaborations between universities and industry such as Procter and Gamble's joint projects with the University of Newcastle.   The new MCA will work with local universities to strengthen the region's innovation capacity, to help realize the potential of local innovation assets and the innovation potential of its SME. Funding for infrastructure projects will be provided by the UK Infrastructure Bank, The government and MCA will work together to promote the automotive, offshore engineering and green technology capabilities of the region.

Northeast England is already a hotspot for digital growth.  This sector will grow with the laying of new cables to the continent and North America and big public sector projects such as the integration of the tax and benefits computer systems.  The MCA will cooperate with the central government in rolling out ultra-fast broadband throughout the region including rural communities.  It will promote training in digital skills through a Local Digital Skills Partnership.  The MCA will establish a specific Digital Connectivity Fund which will support the smart adoption and scale-up of advanced digital services and technologies thereby strengthening existing initiatives. 

HM government will work with the MCA to promote the arts, culture and sports in Northeast England.  This will include further investment in developing Hadrian's Wall UNESCO World Heritage Site.   Greater public participation in sports at the grassroots level will be encouraged by building on existing initiatives by the FA and football clubs.  Efforts will be made to bring major sporting events to the region and to develop it further as a tourist destination.  The film industry will also be encouraged.

Activities arising from these initiatives will require specialist advice on protecting and exploiting investment in branding, design, technology and creativity and on enforcing such protection.  I have already done a lot of work in the region over the years and I look forward to helping local entrepreneurs, business owners and their angel and private equity investors, their solicitors, patent and trade mark attorneys and other professional advisors in the future.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article is welcome to call me on 020 7404 5252 during business hours or send a message through my contact page at other times.

North East LEP's Evidence Hub

Newcastle's Theatre Royal

Author Christopher Down Licence CC BY 4.0 Source Wikimedia Commons

 

Jane Lambert

A resource that other local enterprise partnerships would do well to copy is the North East Evidence Hub. According to its homepage, it brings together key data about North East England and provides tools to help residents, businesses, education establishments and policymakers to make use of those data in a simple and accessible way. It appears to have been collated to support and inform the government's levelling up agenda in the region.

Data is clustered by theme:

• transport 
• productivity
• businesses
• innovation 
• employment and skills 
• education 
• infrastructure
• standards of living 
• people and places, and 
• internationalisation.

Some of the topics are subdivided.  For instance, "innovation" has data on Business engagement in innovation, Business expenditure on R&D, R&D expenditure by sector and Intellectual property, The intellectual property section contains information on patents, trade marks and designs registered by businesses and individuals in the North East region. It gives details of applications, publications and grants. Sadly, for each of those IP rights, the ratio of applications per population was the lowest of the 9 English regions.

Happily, steps are being taken to improve that ratio.  Rise and Design, part of RTC North, holds monthly seminars on a different science or technology-related topic. On Friday 17 June 2022 it plans a hybrid seminar on the electric revolution. Participants can come to the Northern Design Centre in Gateshead or attend online. I attended several; of Rise and Design's webinars during lockdown and wrote about some of them in this publication.  I learned a lot and made some good contacts.

Anyone wishing to discuss this topic further may call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.

The Bright Side of Death

"All is Vanity" by Charles Allan Gilbert

 

Jane Lambert

Last Friday the Design Network North discussed death at its last online Rise and Design meeting.   Death is never a jolly topic but the discussion was positive as we focused on businesses that alleviate some of the pain of death.  One of those businesses was Settld which describes itself as "A simple, secure solution to end-of-life admin." The other was Koffin which makes personal eco-friendly coffins. 

Settld

Julie Wilson gave a presentation on Settld.  It is a service that notifies banks, insurance companies, employers, local authorities, utilities and everyone else who need to know of a person's death.  The About Us page states that "Settld was born from a personal experience of loss." It explains:

"Just after the funeral director had left the house, my mum and I rang company after company, reliving my grandma’s loss with each call. In the end it took us over six hours on the phone, and a further 8 weeks of emails and letters to sort out her affairs. It was an upsetting, stressful and time-consuming task."

The British government already runs a one-stop notification service for most government accounts called "Tell Us Once". Julie and her family used that service for their grandmother's government accounts and wondered why nothing similar existed for banks, utilities, insurers, pension and other service providers. So they set out to create "a simple, secure service, to notify all companies of a loved one’s death and keep updated on account progress in a single place." Settld does not charge grieving families for its service.  It draws its revenues from service providers and partners.

Koffin

Gina Czarnecki spoke about Koffin.  Her company is based in Liverpool and makes three types of coffins which range in price from £250 to £400.   They may not be quite as elaborate as some of the coffins made in Ghana where funerals seem to be more exuberant, but they are less alarming in appearance, stack more easily and are far less polluting than the traditional design.  According to Koffin's Mission Statement:

"One cremation of a ‘traditional’ coffin made of bonded MDF or particleboard produces the same NOx emissions as an average car driving 2,280 miles.   Liverpool cremates 4,300 people a year which is equivalent to 9,804,000 car miles.  Globally there are 35 million coffins sold every year."

Koffin's products are made out of lignin which is biodegradable and readily combustible.

Pitches

We also heard briefly from Rob Brooks who runs another service that alleviates bereavement called Death and Disease. Simon Briton of specialist tax advisors Quaintify R & D and Mags Bradshaw of marketing consultancy, Red Button Marketing.

Other Events in Northeast England

Also announced at  Rise and Design were York Design Week between 20 and 26 Oct and Northumbrian Water's Innovation Festival.  There is a lot going on in Northeast England and I shall publish another article on these and other events shortly.

Intellectual Property

As this is an intellectual property publication, I should say that all the businesses discussed in this article had brands that could be registered as trade marks. Bereavement services have databases the design of which is protected by copyright and the contents by database right.  The coffins designed in Ghana and possibly even those designed in Liverpool might be protected by design registration.  Designers in Liverpool might also think about unregistered design rights and supplementary unregistered designs.  The Ghanian coffins are almost certainly protected by copyright as works of artistic craftsmanship.  So, too, might any surface decoration on the Liverpool coffins.  In this regard, it is worth mentioning that artistic and literary copyrights subsist for the life of the author plus 70 years,

Further Information

If you want to learn more about Rise and Design and Design Network North, you need to contact Terry McStea. Should you wish to discuss anything else, call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.

Rise & Design: Wearable Tech Webinar

The Apple Watch

Author fancycrave1 Copyright Waiver CC0 1.0 Source Wikimedia 

Jane Lambert

On 12 March 2021, the Design Network North held a webinar on wearable tech.  It was a very good meeting with speakers from Northumbria University, a company called Design Aware Body Survival ("DABS") and MediBioSense. There were also two opportunities for networking in breakout sessions and several of us had opportunities to present our businesses towards the end of the meeting.

The first presentation was given by Dt Alan Godfrey, Senior Lecturer of the Department: Computer and Information Science of Northumbria University, He spoke about his analysis of data on the way that individuals' walk which he had abstracted from devices that had been attached to patients' bodies. He gave the example of patients suffering from Parkinson's disease who tend to shuffle. Such research would improve diagnosis and patients' safety and mobility.  At one point Dr Godfrey spoke about standards for wearable devices which prompted me to ask who set those standards. The reason I asked that question is that compliance with standards set by ETSI for mobile telecommunications and other technologies sometimes requires the use of patented inventions which has given rise to disputes between users and patentees over whether patentees are entitled to licence fees and, if so, on what terms (see FRAND 8 Oct 2017 NIPC Law). It was clear from his answer that Dr Godfrey had a different context in mind but he replied that standards for some wearable tech had been set by the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) and other organizations.

The next speaker was Ryan McKinney of DABS Official.  DABS stands for Design Aware Body Survival. DABS is a startup that supplies a range of protective gloves designed to be worn throughout the day enabling wearers to go about their everyday business including, perhaps, shaking hands with others.  On "The story of DABS" page of the business's website, Mr McKinney wrote:

"The best ideas are those that solve problems.
For me it was the handshake."

DABS's gloves are both practical and stylish.  They are practical in that they protect the wearer from infection and are comfortable to wear all day. The "protection" page states that the gloves are treated with "Polygiene ViralOff technology, making them protective and safe". This is described as "an anti-microbial treatment added to the textile to protect the glove from contamination, and allowing the glove to sanitize itself."  According to the "tech-friendly" page, the gloves are made from a "breathable material" that "makes wearing the glove for extended period extremely comfortable, whether at work or at the shops." They are stylish because they were designed by Mrs Ryan McKinney who is a fashion designer. Photos of Mr McKinney and a lady accompanying him on the home page show that the gloves look as good on men and women in business attire as they would with leisurewear and overalls.

The last speaker was Simon Beniston who is founder and CEO of MediBioSense Ltd.  This is described as 

"a global multi-award-winning healthcare innovation company with a focus in medically certified wearable technologies, with team members and representatives, based in Europe, Africa, Middle East and the Americas."

One of the company's products is VitalPatch which is a wearable health monitoring device that continuously monitors heart rate, respiration, ECG, temperature, and movement, with data sent in real-time via Bluetooth. Mr Beniston described that device to the meeting.  He explained how it worked and discussed some of its advantages over conventional devices.

After the formal presentations, I was invited to give a 2-minute pitch about my practice.  I had intended to give a very short talk about the legal protection of wearable technology but changed my mind in one of the breakout sessions when I contributed to a conversation on IP on wearable technology.   I was asked what I did for a living and when I replied I was a barrister I was asked what barristers do with regard to IP.  In my pitch, I explained that we advise other professionals such as patent and trade mark attorneys on difficult points of law.  We represent them or their clients in the courts, Intellectual Property Office and other tribunals.   We also draft legal documents for use in business as well as dispute resolution.  Our relationship with those other professionals is often compared to that of a consultant surgeon or physician in medicine (see IP Services from Barristers 6 April 2013 NIPC News).  When Terry McStea, the moderator, asked how I might be consulted I explained that many of my clients were founders and other business owners who did not have relationships with specialist law firms, patent or trade mark agencies or other professionals and I helped them to acquire the necessary expertise to resolve a particular problem.  I added that I worked with accountants, brand consultants, product design engineers and many others as well as legal professionals.

The presentation that I had prepared would have been as follows.  Although two of the talks in the webinar had been about wearable tech in healthcare I would have noted that there are many other uses for the technology.  These include personal entertainment, mobile computing and communications, defence and security, fire and rescue, operating underwater, in radioactive conditions, outer space or interplanetary exploration. The protectable intellectual assets were obviously a product's technology but also its design and, maybe, its supplier's brand.

If a wearable product or process relating to such products such as data analysis was likely to be marketable for a number of years then a patent would be the optimum protection for the technology.  If not, some other form of protection such as trade secrecy or unregistered design right might be more appropriate.  I explained that patents are expensive.  Usually about £5,000 for the UK alone and may be £100,000 or more for the main industrial companies when office fees, attorneys' fees, translations and other expenses are dotted up. Protecting the patent from revocation in the world's courts and intellectual property offices might be even more expensive and it would be prudent to obtain insurance against the costs and consequences of litigation wherever available.

For some products such as a wristwatch style computer or indeed DABS's gloves, the appearance of the product may be the draw.   Suppliers could register those products as registrable designs or as registered Community designs for the 27 remaining member states of the EU. Overseas they could take advantage of the Hague Agreement to register designs or design patents in countries outside the EU.  Designs that are capable of being registered as registered designs but with short shelf-lives are protected automatically against copying in the UK for 3 years as supplementary unregistered designs or as unregistered Community designs in the EU.  In the UK unregistered design right and even artistic copyright protection may be available.

Finally, every business has a brand and names, initials, logos or other signs identifying that brand can be registered as trade marks in the UK and EU trade marks in the remaining EU member states.  For other countries, applications for registration in a number of countries can be made under the Madrid Protocol.

Anyone wishing to discuss this article or any of the options for protecting their brands, designs, technology or creativity can call me on +44 (0)20 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.

The Impact of EU Exit on the Health and Life Science Sectors

Author Tim Reckmann Licence CC BY 2.0, Source EU Autritt

Jane Lambert

RTC North is holding a series of talks by Neil Warwick on Preparing Your Business for EU Exit – Success in 2021 and Beyond.  Mr Warwick is a solicitor at the Newcastle office of DAC Beachcroft where he specializes in EU and national competition law.  He is also the National Portfolio Chair on Brexit for the Federation of Small Businesses and has a held a number of other important appointments.  His talks cover manufacturing, health and life sciences, subsea, energy and offshore and digital, tech and creative industries.   I attended Mr Warwick's talk on health and life sciences which he delivered on Tuesday.   

He started by acknowledging that brexit is an emotive subject and he did not wish to discuss its merits or otherwise,   His task was to offer his audience practical advice and information.  The UK's exit from the single market and customs union at 23:00 on 31 Dec 2020 was assured.  There was no guarantee that agreement would be reached on the UK's future relationship with the EU.  Businesses in the healthcare and life science sectors should plan on the assumption that there will be no deal with the EU upon the end of the transition period.

There will no longer be free movement of goods, services, labour and capital between the UK and EU. That means customs formalities and possibly tariffs on imports from and exports to the UK's biggest and richest market. It will be less easy to recruit workers from the EU or second British workers to operations in the EU member states.  EU funding will cease.  It will be less convenient to travel to EU states.  Businesses should assess how these changes will affect them, identify areas of concern, make contingency plans to deal with those concerns and procedures for implementing the plans.

The healthcare sector could expect regulations to diverge over time.  Businesses should stockpile essentials where they can.  Contracts should be reviewed for clauses modifying or excluding performance as a result of brexit.  There will be a lot of new legislation.  New computer systems will be required.  The UK will cease to have preferential access to many third-party markets. There will be extensive changes to IP, data protection and the regulation of medicines and medical devices.

Mr Warwick saw a number of opportunities arising from brexit.  It was, in his view, preferable to be regulated by the MHRA. There could be an end to restrictions on state aid.  It would be easier to work with partners outside Europe,  Finally, the pandemic had shows that businesses should always be ready for the unexpected.

Thise interested in British withdrawal from the EU and its consequences may wish to check out NIPC Brext,  Anyone wishing to discuss this article may call me on 020 7404 5252 or send me a message through my contact form.