IP Pragmatics has signed a MOU with the New Zealand research organisation AgResearch. Under this partnership IP Pragmatics will provide AgResearch with licensing and business development support for commercializing its technologies into the European market. Additionally, IP Pragmatics will act as a conduit for intellectual property owned by UK or European based companies that AgResearch may want to license for use in New Zealand or Australia. For full details of the AgResearch press release please see: http://www.agresearch.co.nz

IP Pragmatics manages the InterAct partnership (www.interactpartnership.co.uk) on behalf of four leading UK public sector research organisations. The three year project has now completed its second year and has already successfully completed eight commercialisation vehicles (joint ventures, licences, enhanced service offerings or spin-out companies) by combining IP from across two or more of the partners.

IP Pragmatics is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Lorraine Jones as Business Development Consultant. Lorraine brings significant experience of early stage IP commercialisation to the company; after working in clinical research, Lorraine spent over 8 years working for two independent technology commercialisation companies in the acquisition and licensing of biopharmaceutical technologies.

IP Pragmatics has been awarded a grant by the British Chambers of Commerce under its Export Marketing Research Scheme to research the Indian IP market for the company's services. The research undertaking will be carried out by Dr Madhusudhan during June 2006 and will include meetings at Bangalore BIO 2006.

IP Pragmatics has completed its second full year of business since the major expansion of its consulting and IP services operations from 2004. The company has doubled its staff numbers and doubled its turnover during the year to May 2006, reflecting its success in attracting new clients and in expanding its service offering. Other highlights from the year include: a significant expansion of its IP services business including from its renewals business, IPRIS, and its share-holding in NetsPat Limited; opening new offices in London; and the appointment of two new directors. The company would like to thank all its clients for their continued support and looks forward to again serving their needs in the coming year.

The company exhibited at the recent annual Association of Science and Technology Transfer Professionals (ASTP) meeting in Turku, Finland. The company already works with several European technology transfer organisations and the event was an opportunity for the company to market its consulting and IP services to a wider European network. The exhibition was held jointly with the company's two IP software solution partners, MyIP and NetsPat.

Rupert Osborn was an invited speaker this month at a workshop in Braga, Portugal organized by Tecminho, the technology transfer organisation for the University of Minho. The workshop was aimed at highlighting opportunities for early stage technology transfer in the agro-food sector.

IP Pragmatics will be exhibiting at the 2006 Annual Meeting of the Association of University Technology Managers (AUTM) in Florida, USA (March 2-4, 2006). This annual event is one of the largest meetings of technology transfer practitioners from across the world and will be an opportunity for the company to meet existing clients and make new contacts. IP Pragmatics will be showcasing its IP services support products - including NetsPat and MyIP - during the event. To arrange a meeting with IP Pragmatics at AUTM 2006 please contact Rupert Osborn or Claude Kaplan or visit us at booth E11.

IP Pragmatics has opened a new main office at the London Bioscience Innovation Centre (www.lbic.com) in central London. The move to London from Cambridge is in response to the recent expansion of IP Pragmatics' business, and will allow the company to better serve its diversely located clients.

Dr Claude Kaplan, IP Pragmatics, has been invited to speak at the 2006 International Patent Licensing Seminar. This prestigious conference, held in Tokyo from 23-25th Jan 2006, will address the key issues in encouraging effective exploitation of IP by Japanese companies and research institutes. Claude will be giving a presentation entitled "New opportunities for IP services: Growth of the public sector". A copy of his presentation is available on request from: claude.kaplan@ip-pragmatics.com