Sophie joined the company in December 2011 and will be based at the London headquarters of IPP. Her role includes coordinating the marketing campaigns, with particular responsibility for the UK marketing of IPRIS, our patent renewals partner for universities and SMEs.

Rupert Osborn, CEO of IP Pragmatics, said: "On behalf of everyone at IP Pragmatics I'd like to welcome Sophie to our London office. Her skills will be a considerable asset to the team."

View Sophie's profile

Elaine Eggington and Quinton Fivelman's four-page article - Patent Landscaping and Visualisation Tools - is published in the November 2011 issue of the magazine.

IP Pragmatics frequently conduct patent landscaping analyses for universities and companies looking to understand their patent position in the marketplace, enabling them to develop an effective business and IP strategy. The results can support the preparation, filing, prosecution and exploitation of a patent, define a competitive situation, and help identify suitable commercial partners.

In the article, Elaine and Quinton discuss how the interpretation of the results from a patent analysis provides critical intelligence of the marketplace, including the areas of technology in which your competitors and potential partners are patenting, and potential conflicts and/or synergies with your own patent portfolio or R&D plans.

IP Pragmatics use a number of patent databases and landscaping analytical tools which provide visualisation of these results through graphs, maps and charts. For example, landscaping maps show where patents lie in the patent space, with patents grouped into contours showing 'peaks' and 'valleys' that allow clients to visualise patents in close proximity to each other.

To discuss how patent landscaping analysis can provide your company with critical competitive business intelligence in an easy to digest format, contact Elaine Eggington or Quinton Fivelman on +44 (0)20 3176 0580.

Click here to read the patent landscaping article in Intellectual Property Magazine.

Scientist Adam Brown from the University of Strathclyde, won the Converge Challenge, a competition organised by Herriot-Watt University aimed at discovering and supporting entrepreneurs in Scotland.

Adam impressed the judging panel with his idea and business plan for Lumen Technology, an intelligent condition monitoring decision support software for utility companies. Adam is now preparing to spin-out his company, Bellrock Technology. Second place was awarded to Sofant Technologies, from the University of Edinburgh, with Accufluidics of Heriot-Watt University taking third.

As specialists in helping start-ups and SMEs commercialise their technology, IP Pragmatics were well placed to take part in the Converge Challenge as a sponsor. IP Pragmatics will continue to provide Bellrock Technology with necessary business development support, including patent landscaping, investor funding, licensing technology, and spin-out company creation.

Dr Claude Kaplan, Managing Director of IPP Consulting, attended an awards ceremony on 27 September where the winner of Converge Challenge was announced. He said: “Adam really stood out among the 40 entries for an innovative idea which has a lot of commercial potential. I wish Bellrock Technology every success in future. IP Pragmatics be assisting the third place company, Accufluidics who develop microfluidics devices and chips for the life sciences industry, and I look forward to working with them.”

Adam said of his victory: “I am absolutely delighted to have won Converge Challenge and feel really excited about what the future holds. It was extremely tough and I had never done anything like it before but I now feel more confident about going out there and pitching my idea and hopefully turning it into a successful business.”

“The guidance and support I received through each stage has been invaluable and I would fully encourage anyone out there with an idea to enter this competition next year. There is so much advice and information you learn that everyone comes away well-equipped and in a stronger position to progress.”

AURIL is the association of practitioners in knowledge creation, development and exchange in the UK and Ireland, and is the largest knowledge transfer association in Europe. The annual AURIL conference is held 6-7 October at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel London - West End.

IP Pragmatics works with a large number of public sector research establishments and universities in the UK and around the world to create value through technology transfer and the commercialisation of intellectual property. Find out more about our services for these organisations.

Staff from the IP Pragmatics London head office will be attending the conference and welcome the opportunity to catch up with up with current clients and meet new ones. If you would like to set up a meeting, call +44 (0)20 3176 0580 or email Elaine Eggington at elaine.eggington@ip-pragmatics.com

Following on from the recent launch of Patrafee UK (a joint venture between Patrafee AB and UK-Headquartered IP Pragmatics Limited); IP Pragmatics Pty Limited announced a strategic partnership to promote, support and deliver Patrafee's services and software solutions to new clients in Australia and New Zealand.

"This relationship with Patrafee AB will allow IP Pragmatics to offer clients in Australia and New Zealand the full range of competitive IP management solutions. This builds on IP Pragmatics' successful partnership with IPRIS GmBH enabling us to now cater for a broad spectrum of clients from start-ups, SMEs, universities and research institutes with low-volumes of IP rights, to law firms and multinationals handling thousands of patent renewals every year" said Ronnie Georghiou, Managing Director Australia & New Zealand, IP Pragmatics.

Patrafee AB offers a secure, centralised monitoring and payment service for patent, trademark, design and domain name maintenance fees. Its software solution PatraWin is a powerful and easy to use system that handles all IP matters, and has been developed in close conjunction with IP law firms. It has an integrated online customer portal, IPR Control. Along with Patrafee's patent budgeting system - IP Forecaster - the IP Pragmatics' Sydney office will offer a full range of IP management systems to corporate, patent attorney and law firms in Australia and New Zealand.

"We are very pleased to be able to offer our existing Australian and New Zealand clients a better service from our new Sydney office. We have experienced an increase in the interest in our services and software in the Australasian market, now we are able to react faster and better to these new opportunities", says Mats Polkander, chief executive at Patrafee AB.

Patrafee UK was launched on 1 June as a joint venture between Patrafee AB, a provider of IPR annuity services and IP management software headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden and London-based IP Pragmatics Limited.

IP cost management services are a central part of IP Pragmatics´ offering, which can now be expanded to clients with high volumes of IP rights under management, such as patent attorney and law firms, or large corporates. IP Pragmatics specialises in the identification and commercialisation of technologies across a range of sectors including life sciences and cleantech.

Patrafee UK offers services and software solutions for the management of intellectual property rights to patent attorney and law firms, and large corporate IP rights holders. Patrafee AB has more than 30 years´ experience of patent and trademark annuities and offers a secure monitoring and payment service for patent, trademark and other IPR maintenance fees. Its software solution PatraWin is a powerful and easy to use system that handles all IP matters, and has been developed in close conjunction with IP law firms. It has an integrated online customer portal, IPR Control. Along with IP Pragmatics´ patent budgeting system, IP Forecaster, Patrafee UK will offer a full range of IP management systems to corporate, patent attorney and law firms.

IP Pragmatics Ltd chief executive Rupert Osborn said: "Our relationship with Patrafee UK perfectly complements our successful long term partnership with IPRIS GmbH and means we can offer IP management solutions to a full spectrum of clients, from start-ups, SMEs, universities and research institutes with low-volumes of IP rights, to law firms and multinationals handling thousands of patent renewals every year. This improved service can now be offered to our contacts in the UK and Europe, Israel, South East Asia, Australia and New Zealand."

The four-day convention held in Washington D.C. from 27-30 June 2011 drew 15,626 industry leaders from 48 US states and 65 countries, with the second largest international delegation coming from the UK.

The BIO International Convention offered networking and partnering opportunities with policymakers, scientists, CEOs and newsmakers, and hundreds of sessions covering biotech trends, policy issues and technological innovations. The Convention also featured the BIO Business Forum, a unique platform for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, academic research institutions, and investors from around the world to gather and discuss strategic opportunities. With over 2,400 companies participating in excess of 24,000 partnering meetings it was the largest life science partnering event ever.

Claude said: "The BIO International Convention is the must-attend event for anyone in the life science industry and provides an ideal platform for networking, marketing technologies and discussing new strategic partnerships. It was an unparalleled opportunity to seek new licensees for our clients and to be able to meet with our professional contacts from companies around the world. Over the 4 days I had over 35 meetings with companies from across US, EU and Japan where we discussed our client´s new technologies and identified opportunities for collaboration and / or licensing. I am highly confident that many of these discussions will deliver new business and new revenue streams for our clients."

President and CEO of BIO Jim Greenwood said: "The 2011 BIO International Convention was an enormous success, bringing together leaders from industry, government and academia who are working to solve some of the sector´s biggest challenges. Bringing the global biotech industry to Washington, D.C. gave us the critical opportunity to showcase to key policymakers our industry´ss promise to offer real solutions to the most pressing global challenges such as curing disease, reducing health care costs, combating hunger, discovering alternative forms of energy and creating high-wage jobs. We continue to advocate for a policy and regulatory environment that will support innovation and inspire industry growth."

Since the IP Pragmatics office in Sydney was established in 2010 there have been a number of new business development contracts initiated with Australian clients. IP Pragmatics is one of six partners in a new collaborative research project to identify new bioactive extracts from Australian-grown plants for the personal care industry.

Jointly funded by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation, IP Pragmatics and five Tasmanian companies, the $160,000 project brings together a unique and complex combination of partners to identify new active extracts from plants of potential value to the global personal care industry: to make skincare products which deliver valued anti-ageing and anti-wrinkle benefits.

The research partner and lead company is MacTavish West, a Hobart-based consultancy for food and non-food natural plant chemicals (phytochemicals). Commercial partners Botanical Resources and Essential Oils of Tasmania will collaborate alongside Diemen Pepper. Other partners include Ranicar Pacific and IP Pragmatics.

Ronnie Georghiou, managing director Australia and New Zealand, said: "It's a real pleasure to be involved in this research project and apply our considerable experience in commercialising IP in this sector."

IP Pragmatics has also been providing skills and knowledge support to an Australian-based SME as part of a recent successful Commercialisation Australia application.

Ronnie Georghiou said: "IP Pragmatics has significant experience in assisting public and private sector clients in the UK, Europe, South-East Asia, Australia and New Zealand with the commercialisation of their IP, so we are pleased to be given this opportunity to continue applying our knowledge through this Commercialisation Australia project."

PraxisUnico is a not for profit organisation set up to support innovation and commercialisation of public sector and charity research for social and economic impact. The third annual conference held on 9-10 June in Glasgow was the largest ever with 245 delegates.

The workshop entitled New Models of Engagement: Engaging with Industry, included speakers from the University of Edinburgh, the Health Protection Agency, and Reckitt Benckiser. The session explored both the university/public sector research establishment perspective and from the business perspective, some of the approaches organisations have used to build lasting relationships between the two sectors, highlighting both the positives and the pitfalls that such engagement can bring.

Rupert Osborn said: "Despite the tough economic and UK government spending climate, the sector remains optimistic with research and innovation central to the government's growth strategy. The emphasis was on finding creative new ways of working in response to the uncertain and changing times. The new HEIF funding regime is leading to opportunities for innovative knowledge exchange models and greater collaboration between TTOs and between TTOs and external providers such as IP Pragmatics."

These include two new long-term market intelligence and business development contracts with CSIRO and a leading (Group-of-Eight) university and the first two clients in the Southern Hemisphere to switch from their existing patent annuity payment service provider to IPRIS.

IP Pragmatics is looking forward to building relations with these new clients and continuing to grow the client base in both Australia and New Zealand; whilst offering real value in terms IP commercialisation support, patent and trademark renewal services and the IP Forecaster tool.

In an article by Intellectual Property Magazine on Open Innovation and how the pharmaceutical industry is using more creative approaches to R&D, Rupert was asked to share his opinion on how there has been a shift in the use of licensing agreements by pharmaceutical companies, universities and biotech companies.

The article in the April 2011 issue explains how closed innovation used to see drugs discovered and developed internally, but now everyone from small biotech companies to large pharma are deploying external, collaborative, and licensed R&D. Alongside industry experts from GSK and AstraZeneca, Rupert discussed the reasons why big pharma companies collaborate, how licensing in the pharmaceutical industry is a necessity, and explained how universities and biotech companies are becoming more aware of the value of their IP in such agreements.

With Rupert's previous experience in industry leading the licensing operations of a technology transfer company working with research institutes and universities around the world to commercialise their IP, he was well placed to explore the issues involved.

At IP Pragmatics Rupert assists universities, government research organisations and companies with the assessment and exploitation of early stage life science technologies.

Intellectual Property Magazine article

The conference held at the SCI headquarters on 22 March was called: Identifying opportunities and financing new ventures in technologies for food security and biorenewables. The conference explored the creation of value from science and technology in food production and the bioeconomy.

Biological and chemical innovations applied to agricultural productivity are investment opportunities. Rupert, who is regularly engaged at conferences for his expertise in the commercialisation of research, spoke about commercialising early stage agbiotechnology from academia, including the challenges and opportunities faced. Rupert worked for 14 years in research and business development within the agbinology industry prior to founding IP Pragmatics and is regularly engaged by universities and agbiotechnology companies to assist with their IP evaluation and exploitation in the sector.

If you would like to discuss agri-innovation opportunities with Dr Rupert Osborn, email Rupert.osborn@ip-pragmatics.com

Conference paper: Commercialising early stage agbiotechnology from academia: challenges and opportunities

The National Institute of Biology (NIB) is a public research institute formed by the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for the creation of new fundamental knowledge in the field of biology and related natural and environmental sciences; and the transfer of this knowledge to use with the intention of improving the quality of life, of supporting the environmental policy, and of development in biotechnology.

Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology (TUAT) is one is Japan's leading research universities. It consists of two faculties, of agriculture and technology. The education and research conducted in the Faculty of Agriculture includes the problems of food production and resource management, and environmental and health issues. In addition, in the Faculty of Technology education and research is conducted in fields such as molecular biology, soft materials such as macromolecules, fibre information and communications systems, and nano-technology such as micro-mechanics.

IP Pragmatics will be helping both organisations to identify technology partnering opportunities and then promote these to its extensive networks of international companies with the aim of concluding new licensing and research partnerships.

National Institute of Biology
Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology

Claude Kaplan's article, entitled Closure of Pfizer Sandwich: Loss of Confidence in UK Science or Dawn of New Era? appears on the website of Applied Clinical Trials and the Letters page of the magazine's May issue.

In the article, Claude explores the implications for the closure of Pfizer's research centre with the loss of 2,400 jobs, and the future of pharmaceutical R&D in the UK.

Applied Clinical Trials article.

Senior business development manager Louise Sarup's article entitled The Value of Intellectual Property: An Overview of Methods Used, has been featured in the winter edition of International Pharmaceutical Industry (IPI) magazine.

Louise explains the importance of knowing the value of a company's IP, particularly for those in the life sciences, and the strengths and weaknesses of various approaches to valuation.

IPI magazine features the best practice for outsourcing management for the pharmaceutical industry. To view the three-page article, turn to page 8 of the digital version of the magazine below.

IPI Magazine article

Organised by the National Centre for Industrial Property Information and Training (INPIT), as a part of its promotion policy for patent licensing, IPSL is held annually to promote the importance of intellectual property and patent licensing to the public, and to enhance the international technology transfer market.upert was one of the panellists for the seminar entitled, Is pre-packaging patents useful to promote licensing?, along with the MD of Japan IP Network Co. Ltd and the technology development manager of Oregon Health and Science University.

Using biotechnology as an example field, the session discussed problems and challenges of patent packaging as a means of promoting licensing. From the licensee point of view, this method is attractive because only one point of contact is involved in negotiations, compared to a conventional case that necessitates negotiations with several patent holders for formalities.

At the same time, this method is not free of problems and challenges concerning profit distribution, licensing negotiations, and license application based on packaging.