Protecting the secrets of the drawing board

“The entrepreneur is the one who dares to dream the dreams and is foolish enough to try and make them come true." So says Vinod Khosla, the CEO of IT giant Sun Microsystems. The dreams he refers to are the beginnings of intellectual property which can mature into tangible, revenue generating ideas. Whether these ideas are writings, computer code, or design drawings, they are all intellectual property.

But without careful protection, such ideas can be plundered by others. So here are five key points for intellectual property protection:

1. Trade Secrets - entrepreneurs should treat this valuable information as confidential and proprietary and must take reasonable steps to keep it so. If disclosure to a third party is necessary, then a non-disclosure agreement should be signed before any negotiations commence.

2. Copyright - entrepreneurs create data sheets, drawings, presentations, and photographs which can all be protected via copyright. Ideas alone cannot be copyrighted, but an author’s unique expression of an idea is copyrightable once it is “fixed in a tangible medium of expression.” Thus obtaining copyright protection is simple. No formal registration is required.

3. Design Rights - to qualify as a new design, the overall impression should be different from any existing design. This is to prevent unauthorised copying of an original design. Design rights exist independently of copyright. While copyright may protect documents detailing the design as well as any artistic or literary work incorporated within the finished product, the design right focuses more on the shape, configuration and construction of a product.

4. Trade Marks - these protect distinctive symbols, logos, marks, words, or designs that are used to identify and distinguish goods from others. To maximise their protection, they must be registered. Trade marks also impact on choice and use of domain names used on the internet.

5. Patent - though finite in duration, patents allow companies to protect ideas and processes. A patent allows the holder to exclude others from “making, using, importing, offering for sale, or selling the invention” for a specific time period. All inventions must be novel, non-obvious, and useful.

Angel Adrian is a Senior Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law for the Business School at Bournemouth University.

Back to the drawing board – the secrets for successful design

Good design is about meeting the needs and requirements of people in a society and translating them into a manufactured product at the right price. It’s important to consider the ergonomic needs, the aesthetic aspirations, the technological functionality, the materials and manufacturing processes, as well as the environmental issues. All this has to be balanced against the cost of resources and time.

Here are five key points for good design:

1. Know your market - Who is the customer, who is the user and are they the same person? What do they want from the product, why do they want it and what for? Where will the product be used and in what way? Where will the product be bought and how will it be stored or distributed and disposed of? Write it all down

2. Create a concept - Think of as many ideas as possible and develop them into concepts through sketching and modelling. Each concept must cater for all of the market needs and requirements. Choose the final concept that would most appeal to your market and that is practically achievable.

3. Attention to detail - A good product has finesse, attention to feature details, colours, textures, shapes and overall form. This needs to integrate well with how the product works; how it will be used by people; how the product would be made in industry, from what materials and how it would be assembled and serviced.

4. Model and prototype - Before committing yourself to the final design, get a feel for what the product is actually like. Make models and prototypes to test and evaluate whether your design satisfies the market. Get feedback from real potential customers and users, listen carefully to and note their comments, and be prepared to modify your design

5. Organise your project - From the outset, break up tasks and set clear deadlines for each stage. Seek advice from experts and people who know about the product or market, while protecting your ideas through professional bodies. Document all of your work, design methods and process for future reference in case you have to go back to the old drawing board!

Dr Bob Eves and Tim Reynolds are Senior Lecturers in the School for Design, Engineering and Computing.

Safeguarding the future of your business knowledge

A consequence of the current economic climate is that businesses may need to reduce their staff levels. In addition to coping with the loss of key staff, how will businesses cope with the loss of key knowledge and what can they do to minimise any
potentially negative effects?

Here are five pointers to understand how to safeguard key knowledge within your business:

1 Consider the two different types of knowledge. Explicit knowledge represents hard knowledge (rules, processes, systems), whereas tacit knowledge concerns the softer more practical ‘know-how’ experience. A business needs both to be effective. Which types does your business rely on?

2 Recognise the difference between personal knowledge and organisational knowledge.
Personal knowledge is the knowledge held by staff within an organisation. When staff leave, so does their knowledge. Organisational knowledge resides within the firm/business and remains intact throughout staff changes. Where does the knowledge reside within your business?

3 Locate your organisational knowledge. There are five main ‘storage bins’ to consider:
i. Culture of an organisation summarises history and values
ii. Structures encode behaviour such as defining job roles
iii. Transformations are processes and procedures that embody knowledge
iv. Ecology represents the physical setting of the organisation which helps shape behaviours
v. External archives and data storage retain records of activities and solutions

4 Share knowledge. This reduces the risk of potential loss. Job sharing, shadowing, mentoring
and cross-functional groups of mixed discipline staff are all good strategies to ensure that a blend of both explicit and tacit knowledge are distributed and retained safely within a business.

5 Identify your intellectual capital. One of the main assets of a business will be its intellectual capital, and so it’s important to retain and protect it during a period of change. Even though it’s a major source of competitive advantage, many businesses don’t have a clear idea of what their intellectual capital is and where it resides.

Dr Martyn Polkinghorne is Manager for the Knowledge Transfer Programmes Centre within BU’s Finance & Commercial Services.

Sorry Darling, that’s not a Budget

Imagine asking for an overdraft, but telling your bank manager that it will never be repaid because you plan to carry on overspending for the foreseeable future.

That is what the Chancellor did on Wednesday.

Someone needs to tell him that a budget should not be just a prediction, but rather a tool to help you improve the situation in the future.

But what were the key points in the Budget for businesses?

1. Business losses for this year and next can be carried back for three years rather than just one, getting a refund of previous years’ tax. This applies to losses up to £50,000 and will help if this year’s losses are greater than last year’s profits.

2. Extra time to pay business taxes (including VAT and PAYE), if you apply and qualify. If you expect to make a loss next year, you can now postpone tax on this year’s profit – effectively claiming the loss relief early.

3. Investment allowances on new machinery, computers or other business equipment are temporarily doubled to 40%. Sadly this will not help most small businesses, because you could already claim 100% of the first £50,000 of qualifying capital expenditure.

4. 50% income tax on incomes over £150,000, starting next April. Government revenues from this will be trivial (about 1% of the deficit), but the damage to the economy could be huge. Higher taxes mean less investment, fewer new businesses and fewer jobs, and less spending as the rich leave the UK.

5. Debt, debt, debt - a deficit of £175 billion this year (about a quarter of all government spending), and about the same next year. Even in 2014 the annual deficit will be around £100 billion. This huge debt will drag the economy down for a generation, and dealing with it will be the big political issue of the next few years.

Richard Teather is a Senior Lecturer in Tax Law.

The winning formula for project management

Project management traditionally focuses on the triple constraint - cost, time and quality. Yet projects are frequently late, exceed their budget, or fail to meet requirements. In times of recession, budgets are cut and the pressure to deliver increases but this can exacerbate problems, leading to unnecessary expenditure and reducing the likelihood of projects delivering benefits.

Judicious pruning and tight control are key to managing projects under pressure. By focusing attention on long term goals, projects can unlock hidden potential and exceed expectations. Project managers need to look beyond the end of their project, in much the same way that a karate master concentrates on a point beyond the brick he is trying to break. By moving the focal point of a project beyond ‘the deadline’, barriers to change are more readily identified and creative solutions found.

Here are five steps to success for managing projects in a recession:

1. Get ready for change. Business cannot carry on as usual. Once planned, projects resist change, so you need to look for ways to introduce change right from the start. Surface resistance and address concerns. Find the ‘show-stoppers’ early and deal with them, or stop the project.

2. Aim for success. Be clear about the purpose of the project and ensure objectives serve the overall purpose. Make the links explicit. Do not let existing processes drive the project;challenge convention and tradition where necessary and innovate to meet the demands of the project.

3. Gain commitment. Gain commitment from stakeholders, suppliers, customers and team members from the outset. Understand what’s in it for them and mange relationships individually and in person. Communicate face-to-face whenever possible and supplement with digital communication to share information and increase currency.

4. Energize the team. Your project is a great way to empower individuals to feel they can make a difference. Motivate you team by encouraging them to shout for what they need and provide suitable forums for them to do. so.

5. Review and revise. Frequently assess risks and opportunities. Monitor costs and measure progress towards goals. You can only control what you can measure, so be sure to measure the right things.

Karen Thompson is a lecturer in Project Management in the Business School.

Nestors and Investors: Five ways to understand house price indices

UK house prices have now been falling since the second half of 2007. The reason we know that, other than from our own bitter experience if we have tried to sell, is via the publication of various house price indices. Are these indices accurate? Do they apply to my house and yours? Are they the same as share indices such as the FTSE 100? And do they apply to every property in the country?

The answer is no. Below are five pointers to understand how house price indices work:

1. There’s not just one price index. In fact there are several, including those of Nationwide, Halifax, and the UK Government. What each index tells you is just a summary of what is happening in that particular index, not what is happening to the price of your house. The Bank of England is acutely aware of “significant conceptual and practical problems” with using a single number to try and describe the price of every house in the country.

2. The long-term view. In January 2009 the Halifax index rose and the Nationwide fell; in March Halifax fell and Nationwide rose. They do tend to move together, but the main message is one of long, slow general trends, not micro changes on a monthly basis. An increase of one index in one month should not be seen as a green shoot, it is merely a blip, a statistical aberration, or in Gordon Brown’s infamous statement, an indicator of “an exogenous variable”.

3. Share indices are relatively easy to construct, as any ordinary share in (say) Barclays is totally identical to the millions of other shares in that bank; but with houses almost every one is different. So if we know the price of one Barclays Bank share we know the price of all of them, but the price of one house is not equal to all others.

4. Dual Investment. When buying a house you are in fact buying two distinct things; a housing service (a home to reside in) and also a fairly risky and volatile investment. The house price bubble that burst in Autumn 2007 hit the investment component of the price, but not the housing service. So like many other assets, the nesting part is still there, it’s the investing bit that’s suffering.

5. Bad news for flats. Using the Nationwide index, the South West region has fallen 19% since its peak in September 2007, a fall identical to the UK average, but worse that Scotland with a drop of only 14% (the UK’s best region) and much better than Northern Ireland where the drop of 40% makes it the UK’s worst region. Unfortunately it’s not just the regions that differ: there are different rates of price fall for detached, semi-detached, terraces and, dropping the fastest, for flats.

Dr Geoff Willcocks is Deputy Dean (Education) at the Business School.