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.

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.

Rise and Design Online: A Webinar for Designers in Northeast England on Designing our Way out of Lockdown

By User:John_the_mackem - Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1627723

Jane Lambert

On 20 Jan 2017, I attended a "Rise and Design" networking seminar in Huddersfield on the Power of Collaboration (see Rise and Design in Huddersfield  21 Jan 2017 IP Yorkshire).  I subsequently found out that "Rise and Design" was just one of a number of services offered by Design Network North which "was established in 2007 with the aim of increasing the contribution that design makes to the economy." The project is delivered by RTC which claims to be one of Europe's leading technology transfer companies with offices in Sunderland,  Leeds and Daresbury, The "Rise and Design" seminars are held at different locations in Yorkshire and North East England each month and some of those locations are a long way from my home. For that reason, I did not attend any more until last Friday.

Since lockdown began, Terry McStea, Head of Design Network North, has held informal conversations over Zoom for designers and others interested in design in North East England and Yorkshire on most Fridays between 11:00 and 13:00.  I have attended several of those sessions and learned a lot about the design sector in those regions.  Graham Archer of Archer IP has also attended some of those events, Consequentially, he or I or both of us have participated in an occasional discussion of intellectual property.

Last Friday, Design Network North held a webinar or online Rise and Design networking seminar entitled Rise and Design: Designing our Way out of Lockdown.  There were about 60 names on a delegate list that Terry circulated shortly before the event  There were formal presentations from Matt Atkinson of Radical Panda, Dave Swan of Tharsus, Angela MacOscar of Northumbrian Water, James Rutherford of Kick Cards and Helen Short of AQCT. There were also interventions from Karl McKraken of the North East LEP and Jane Anderson of JCA Consult.

The webinar was conducted over Zoom which enables participants to assemble in small groups like breakout rooms in conventional conferences.  Before the presentations began I was allocated to a breakout toom with Matt, Angela and Karl where we introduced ourselves.   About halfway through the webinar, Terry divided us into different breakout groups.  On that occasion, I met Helen and Jo Gooding of Design Research Associates.  These were very useful opportunities to get to know the delegates and speakers a little bit better. My only criticism of them is that they were very short.  However, had they been longer it would have been impossible to fit all the presentations and interventions into the timetable.

Radical Panda's mission is "to be a trusted partner in helping businesses to understand and manage digital transformation".  It offers a variety of services from analysis to crime scene to the automotive, construction, defence, healthcare, manufacturing, retail and security industries.  On the Eventbrite booking page, Matt wrote:

"Many businesses are embracing digital technology to cope with the current restrictions, whether that's selling products online to Zoom meetings with clients. But there is a danger that we choose the first solution we come across. Matt will describe his approach to understanding where the real gains can be made, and some tools to help you explore new ways of working and services to offer."

In his presentation, Matt described the methodology by which his company identifies the appropriate solution for its customer.  He shared a slide with "Strategy" on the extreme left and "Implementation" on the extreme right with large connected hexagons in between.  One of the hexagons was labelled "Inspiration" and the other "Ideation". He discussed each of those elements in his remaining slides.

Tharsus is a product design consultancy which aims to partner customers "from initial concept to commercial delivery,"  On the Eventbrite page, Dave had written:

"Now that social distancing has become the norm, keeping employees and customers safe has become a major issue for busineses. Tharsus have responded to this by developing bump, a wearable device that helps individuals maintain a safe environment, and allows businesses to monitor the effectiveness of the systems they've put in place. Dave will give us some insights into this new technology and it's creation."

In his talk, Dave discussed the "Bump" which is a wearable personal motion system that warns the wearer when someone is too close for his or her personal safety.  According to the company's website

"It uses tried and tested radio frequency technology to alert people instantly when they’re too close. It’s peer-to-peer, GDPR-compliant and allows wearers and site managers to access the whole system’s analytics in the cloud."

Dave, who is Chief Technical Officer, spoke enthusiastically about the product without slides or notes and stimulated a lot of interest when the discussion was opened to the audience.

As its corporate name indicates, Northumbrian Water is the water utility for much of Northeast England but Angela added that it also has customers in Essex and Suffolk.  For the last four years, the company has held an Innovation Festival.  This year the Festival will take place online between 14 and 17 Sept.  Angela described previous events and discussed the preparations for the 2020 event which will encourage participation from all parts of the world as well as Northeast England.

Kick Cards is a tool to facilitate business discussion and ideas generation.  They are James Rutherford's own creation.  James describes himself as a "startup engineer" or, more precisely, as a "Web Service Developer // CTO for Hire // Creative Technologist."  The cards are sold in packs. Each pack consists of:

"42 Prompt Cards

To gently guide you with simple questions into powerful discussions 

4 Aspect Cards 

Try these to approach any of the Prompt Cards from an unusual viewpoint 

3 Outstanding Discussion Cards. 

Teams can use these to keep conversations productive 

7 Instruction Cards

How to use Kick Cards in different settings and tips for getting the most from them 

Access to a large online resource 

Extensive background info to bring more value to each card"

James demonstrated his product and described its uses in his presentation. 

"AQCT" stands for "Absolute Quality Consultancy and Training". The company offers management Systems and Training built around customers' businesses.  Helen leads the company's consultancy services.  In her presentation, she described those services and explained how they benefit their customers.

In his intervention, Karl summarized some of the services available the LEP's match funding scheme for small businesses in the North East.  In her intervention, Jane described her consultancy's Staff Wellbeing Framework Model,

Design Network North publishes Rise and Design A Guide for Beginners which contains useful information for any networking event and not just Rise and Design. I found last Friday's Rise and Design event to have been one of the best online seminars on any topic that I have ever attended.  I would strongly recommend those events to anyone with an interest in design.  I would also commend the informal Friday drop-in conversations.  Anyone wishing to attend one of those events can register here. 

While this Covid-19 emergency continues, anyone wishing to discuss this article of any of the topics mentioned in ti should clerk on +44(0)7986 948267 or send me a message through my contact page while this emergency continues.