Patent Theft threatens enterprising inventors

Print Email Tweet This!Save to Favorites
Recommend on Google+

An item covered by BBC news on TV and radio yesterday morning may be useful when covering protections of ideas and inventions for start-up businesses and entrepreneurs. Trevor Baylis, who invented the wind-up radio among other things and often features as a classic entrepreneur-inventor in business text books, is calling for Government action to help British inventors defend their ideas from rivals who try to steal them.

He claims that theft of patented ideas is a common problem, and because it is not a criminal offence it is almost impossible for small businesses or individuals to take the thief to court. Legal action would involve the patent owner suing for theft through the civil court and bear the costs themselves, whereas if this was a criminal offence the state would bear the cost of the case. He is supported in his action by Vince Cable, his local MP, who successfully introduced a private member’s bill which increased the penalties for copyright theft from a maximum of two years to 10 years imprisonment. This does not cover patents, and the argument is that it should now be extended to do so.

However the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys say that it is not that simple – this BBC article covers their arguments clearly, and also includes links to extracts from the coverage of the issue from both radio and TV yesterday. If you want to use a longer piece about it, download the podcast of yesterday’s edition of radio 5’s ‘Wake up to Money’, and Trevor Baylis’s own website offering help with ideas, inventions and patents offers a very clear explanation of the whole process to inventors and small businesses, which could be very helpful for students and might form the basis for an early investigation.

blog comments powered by Disqus

BUSINESS TEACHER RESOURCE NEWSLETTER
Get first news of business teaching resources, ideas and other materials from tutor2u. Over 9,400 business teachers from the UK and around the world receive our regular teacher email newsletters. Sign up for free here!

*  Your Email Address:
*  Preferred Format:	HTMLText
Full Name:
*  Country:	-- Please choose your country --United KingdomAlgeriaArgentinaAustraliaAustriaAzerbaijanBahamasBahrainBangladeshBelgiumBermudaBosniaBotswanaBrazilBruneiBulgariaCambodiaCameroonCanadaChinaCyprusCzech republicEgyptEstoniaEthiopiaFijiFranceGeorgiaGermanyGhanaGreeceHong KongHungaryIndiaIndonesiaIranIrelandIsraelItalyIvory CoastJapanJordanKenyaKuwaitLebanonLiberiaLithuaniaMalawiMalaysiaMaldivesMaltaMauritiusMexicoNepalNetherlandsNew ZealandNigeriaNorwayOmanPakistanPapua New GuineaPhillipinesPolandPortugalQatarRomaniaRussiaSaudi ArabiaSierra LeoneSingaporeSlovakiaSloveniaSouth KoreaSpainSri LankaSwedenSwitzerlandTanzaniaThailandTunisiaUgandaUkraineUnited Arab EmiratesUnited StatesUruguayVietnamWest IndiesZambiaZimbabwe
Job / Position:
Postcode:
School / College:
Town / City:
AS/A2 Applied Business Board:	-- Please choose an option --AQAEdexcelOCRNot offered
AS/A2 Business Studies Board:	-- Please choose an option --AQAOCREdexcelCambridge Pre-UIBSQAWJECOtherDon't offer AS/A2 Business
BTEC First:	Offered Not Offered
BTEC National in Business:	Offered Not offered
GCSE Applied Business Board:	-- Please choose an option --AQAEdexcelOCRCCEAWJECDont Offer GCSE Applied Business
GCSE Business Board:	-- Please choose an option --AQAOCREdexcelIGCSEICAA/CCEAWJECSQAOtherDon't offer GCSE Business
*  Enter the security code shown:

Popular Topic Tags

recession, demand, prices, price, unemployment, profit, economics, costs, investment, inflation, supply, employment, trade, competition, gdp, risk, china, debt, euro, entrepreneur, capacity, production, innovation, downturn, tutor2u, revision, pay, exports, manufacturing, confidence, profits, food, incentives, banks, strategy, globalisation, aqa, expectations, oil, csr, usa, startup, retailers, housing, productivity, sterling, supermarkets, takeover, google, economies of scale, mortgage, cash flow, advertising, quiz, leadership, property, buss4, tesco, economic growth, video, efficiency, enterprise, motivation, stakeholders, apple, deflation, corporate social responsibility, ebea, market share, airlines, pricing, taxation, merger, slowdown, bank of england, acquisition, interest rates, market failure, borrowing, competitiveness, sustainability, product life cycle, credit crunch, budget deficit, aqa business studies, facebook, twitter, aqa business, bbc, nelson thornes, philip allan updates, starbucks, philip allan, monopoly, diversification, recruitment, organic growth, stocks, training, oligopoly, starter activity, shareholders, uk economy, poverty, emerging markets, dollar, government failure, management, retailing, suppliers, buss1, marketing mix, tim harford, cpi, branding, opportunity cost, breakeven, government spending, hodder education, vat, product, customer service, eu, losses, wages, evaluation, india, external growth, wealth, environment, edexcel, location, promotion, technology, information failure, business studies revision, sources of finance, franchise, aqa gce business, elasticity, regulation, spare capacity, welfare, jobs, economic cycle, marketing, zondle, strategic direction, british airways,
View all tags for the Business Blog