A firm of intellectual property law specialists, which has a major presence in St Albans, is to help engineers recognise how a range of cutting-edge technologies, including robots and Artificial Intelligence (AI), can be protected from copycats at a conference next month.
Attorneys from Cleveland Scott York will be attending the Southern Manufacturing and Electronics Show in Farnborough from 6-8 February 2018 to raise awareness amongst professionals in the sector about how they can protect their innovations.
On Tuesday 6 February, Andrew Mackenzie, a Partner and Chartered Patent Attorney at the firm, will deliver a talk entitled ‘what can you patent anyway?’ to help researchers and engineers recognise when they have something that might be protectable.
The talk will include a discussion of the Internet of Things (IOT) and Robotics, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies, where it might not always be clear exactly which aspects an innovation can be patented.
Andrew Mackenzie said: “Investment in research and development usually depends on being able to generate a profitable return.
“However, if someone else is able to simply copy the innovation that has come about as a consequence, that return will be diminished and there will be little incentive to invest in developing new technologies.
“In fact, many of the technologies we rely on every day would not have been developed if they had not be protected with patents, preventing competitors from commercially exploiting the products of someone else’s investment in research and development.
“However, the rules on patents are complex and it is not always obvious which aspects of an invention can be protected.
“I am looking forward to helping engineers from across the UK understand how they can identify aspects of their inventions that can be protected.”
Southern Manufacturing and Electronics takes place from 6-8 February 2018 at FIVE, Farnborough, with Andrew Mackenzie’s talk on ‘what can you patent anyway’ taking place at 3.15pm on Tuesday 6 February.
Information about how to attend the show is available from: http://www.industrysouth.co.uk/.