18 July 2012
Julian Wilkins specialist Creative Industries Lawyer & editor of Blue Pencil, joins the Creative Barcode Board of Management to support the development of affordable & non-complex Intellectual Property mechanisms for creative industries
Blue Pencil, director, Julian Wilkins, who combines his role as a specialist Creative Industries lawyer with that of editorial editor has joined the Creative Barcode board of Management. Blue Pencil is believed to be the UK’s first intellectual property (IP) law magazine dedicated to Intellectual Property law & how issues arising affect those with interests in or working in the creative industries. Creative Barcode is the UK’s first digital IP protection & safe-disclosure system for Creators & Innovators worldwide
In a media and innovation development partnership both organisations will work together sharing knowledge, advice, audience data, skills and platforms to strengthen their messages and develop products and funds for the benefit of their near identical customer base. IP legal services firms will also be invited to co-join the innovation development team.
The intellectual property system is experiencing a shake-up worldwide
Following extensive reviews & consultations with industry, various nations including the USA & UK have declared that traditional IP systems are not quite fit-for- purpose in the digital age.
When changes occur it stimulates the need for innovation whether evolutionary, revolutionary or disruptive.
One of the fastest to react to the changing IP scene was UK start-up Creative Barcode anecdotally considered by some as the first innovation in the IP sector for more than three decades. It launched in September 2010 introducing a new, early-stage IPR to cover an unmet need – authentication and protection of ‘pre-commercialised’ innovation and creative concepts.
Its unique system enables customers to create digital barcodes to authenticate ownership of works, protect them, track them and via its file transfer system to safely-disclosure to third parties who accept the terms of the trust charter before downloading files.
The Creative Barcode system is legally robust and is supported by the World Intellectual Property Organisations’ (WIPO) mediation service who intervene should any breach occur. 18 months since launch and with users in over 19 countries spanning 5 continents not a single breach has occurred.
In support of open innovation activities, the Creative Barcode system is also being utilised by Universities, the World Bank and ideation and crowd funding intermediaries acting in the increasingly important role of ‘trusted agent’ on behalf of the creative communities they represent including students, individual innovators, micro and SME companies.
Creative Barcode will be extending its micro-barcode which was introduced more recently to protect Creators ‘completed’ works displayed on the internet for marketing, sales, PR and investment purposes. New developments will focus on taking the complexity and cost out of Digital Rights Management for the millions of individuals and micro-sized businesses operating in the creative industry sectors of design, advertising, digital, visual communications, photography, illustration, film, video and potentially music.
Creative Barcode, CEO, Maxine Horn says, “We continue to take an innovative & non-complex approach to development of IP solutions for the Creative Industries in particular. We reduce everything down to the core human principles of ethics, authentication, equality, trust, etiquette and fair trading. We believe in the decency of the majority but under-pinned by an affordable and easy to use system to ensure those interacting understand the terms of engagement at the outset. In our opinion, this is a more effective approach than layering systems with too many rules, costs and complexities which tend to turn people away from respecting intellectual property”
Both Blue Pencil and Creative Barcode are united in their quest to turn IP into a more positive business tool, by introducing non-complex and cost efficient mechanisms that all Creators can afford to utilise to ensure misunderstandings do not arise purely because clear rules of engagement were not put in place at the outset.
The first edition of Blue Pencil was launched in May 2012 at the Cannes Film Festival where it was very well received.
Julian Wilkins, editorial director, says “Whilst Intellectual Property is not always considered an exciting and sexy subject for creative individuals it is nonetheless an intelligent and fascinating subject that stirs high octane emotions when Creators and Innovators works are unethically purloined by others”.
Creative types do have a habit of beginning new relationships on a meet and greet handshake and all is well until finance, either lack of or because of it, comes into play. There is a tendency for creative firms to care foremost about the creativity but be over trusting on the business side which can result in loss of their IP interests and being under paid.
New Funding, Innovation and Trading platforms
Blue Pencil is developing a dedicated Film and Documentary Fund aimed at investors with a specialist and keen interest in backing new projects from the media sector. The Fund will launch later in 2012.
Subject to further discussion the fund may be broadened to include a creative industries ‘innovation fund’ potentially linked to Creative Barcode’s associated safe-trading portal Innovation Bank. Innovation Bank is a straight-forward trading platform for all types of innovators and innovation-led firms, IP specialists and funding organisations. Members can find collaboration partners, send innovation requests to each other and license; buy and sell innovation concepts and IP. The trading takes place behind a secure registration system which operates to Creative Barcode house rules. The front-end provides a PR and Marketing platform with an Innovation Directory showcasing fee for services offers and providing a facility to upload press releases and articles directly into the news room.
Blue Pencil and Creative Barcode are in active discussions to formulate an investment fund for further development of innovative IP solutions for the creative industries, start-ups and lone inventors. This is likely to include a Digital Rights Management system fit for a digital age. IP legal firms will be invited to potentially co-join these developments.
With more affordable and less complex early stage protection processes and rights management mechanisms in place, individuals and micro-businesses will have a better opportunity to deal with IP issues at the outset, manage them and enforce them.
Government is looking to industry to develop solutions. Yet it is unlikely that a single law firm or single creative industries firm or association has either the means or impetus to develop and fund solutions on behalf of all creative sectors without such solutions and tools being utilised purely for competitive advantage.
Therefore, collaboration is critical to ease the journey forward and produce solutions available to and usable by all IP legal firms & their clients and their supporting trade associations.
ENDS
For further information contact
julian.wilkins@bluepencilset.com
About Creative Barcode
Launched in September 2010 Creative Barcode fulfills an unmet need for the protection and authentication of innovation concepts pre-commercialization. It is believed to be the first innovation in the IP sector for more than 3 decades, fit for the digital age. Usage of Creative Barcode opens-up innovation by reducing the vulnerability of disclosure pre-commercialization and providing an authentication of concepts and a measureable value to innovation journeys.
And it does so in a legally robust yet non-complex way at a price point affordable to every individual Creator up to the largest company or University worldwide
Endorsed by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) and with users in over 19 Countries across 5 continents the Creative Barcode system has never been breached
About Blue Pencil
Blue Pencil Media Ltd is a publishing, media finance, and production Company, and was established in 2011 by two brothers, Julian and Stuart Wilkins whose respective careers in media and IP law, and international banking as well as a long family association within the media industry have helped shape the company, and its values.
About Innovation Bank
Launched June 2012 Innovation Bank is a safe-trading portal for all type and size of innovation-led firm. It encourages collaborative partnerships and the licensing, buying and selling of innovation concepts and IP. Account holders can also send innovation requests to each other singularly or to specific groups. All trading takes place within a secure, non-public area, where account holders are signed to the Creative Barcode Trust Charter. A front-end Innovation directory and news room is open to public view and is used by account holders as a PR and marketing facility.
Maxine Horn
Creative Barcode / Blue Pencil
UK
www.creativebarcode.com
