11 June 2012
Sir James Dyson Student Award - slammed for lax IP terms
In an article on Innovation Bank by CEO of A Better Mouse Trap the James Dyson Foundation Award for students comes under scrutiny for its altogether lax intellectual property terms and more so it's lack of any guidance or duty of care towards students drawn to enter the awards for a chance of PR glory and the £10,000 first prize
http://www.innovationbank.co.uk/index.php?page=ib/newsitem&news_id=6062
However, since the international competition opened for entries on February 2nd 2012, and with a closing date just 7 weeks away, only 19 entries have been submitted so far across 18 Countries - & only one entry from each of the UK and USA.
A Better Mouse Trap concludes that students may be more IP savvy than the organisers give them credit for and perhaps have chosen to give the awards scheme a wide berth rather than risk full public exposure of their innovation and design concepts across the internet including CAD drawing in high res image formats and full disclosure rending any later patent application impossible.
The organisers do say that it is up to the students to obtain all necessary world wide patent protection before uploading or to submit their precious cargo at their own risk.
Considering the cost of a world wide patent (and a three year wait) it will certainly knock out the benefit of the £10,000 prize money by more than ten-fold and leave the rest of the runners-up significantly poorer.
Still it makes that student loan debt look cheap by comparison !
The James Design Award scheme is such a great opportunity that it's a great shame it is marred by very poor attention to intellectual property -
And never more so when its name and heritage comes from one of the UK's most admired inventors who himself has battled the trials and tribulations of intellectual property theft.
Creative Barcode / A Better Mouse Trap
