A conversation between the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) and well-known inventor, Trevor Baylis, led to Mr Baylis suggesting the setting up of a room to protect Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) of small businesses or entrepreneurs. The idea was taken up and now the ‘Baylis Breakout Room’ has been opened at the Winchester Business School and FSB Officers were there to lend their support.
Every business holds Intellectual Assets (IA) – these consist of both intellectual property and ‘know-how’. IAs are fast becoming recognised as potential ‘Intellectual Property Rights’ (IPR) which are the legal rights given to a business to enable it to block or control the use of the IAs by others.
Chairman of the Southampton Branch, Alan Chatfield, said: “The FSB is very proud to support the newly opened Baylis Breakout Room. Many businesses begin with a spark of imagination followed by a lot of hard work but small firms or budding entrepreneurs can often jeopardise their Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) through unwitting disclosure for example, in semi-public conversations, or through disclosure to advisors or backers during business negotiations. This new room can offer invaluable help to prevent this.”
It is possible to protect IPR through various agreements, such as a Non Disclosure Agreement (NDA, a confidentiality agreement). NDAs are a legal contract between at least two parties that outline confidential material, knowledge, or information, and create a confidential relationship between the parties to protect any type of confidential and proprietary information or trade secrets. As such, an NDA protects non-public business information.
“This room will enable inventors and entrepreneurs to protect their IAs during discussions with business advisors, enabling their conversations to be recorded, as video and audio, and NDAs signed and witnessed by camera,” added Mr Chatfield
