It was really interesting to engage with local businesses at the Made in the Midlands exhibition last week, both at our stand and during our talk on Intellectual Property for export.
We ran an import/export-themed competition to win a magnum of Lanson Champagne. All the winner had to do was:
Rank the UK, France and China in order of the number of international patent applications filed per capita of population during 2012 (highest first).
The answer relied on guessing relative population sizes as well as the state of innovation and import/export activity in the respective countries. International patent applications can be useful for those wishing to utilize their innovation overseas, such as by importing or exporting.
Congratulations to Mark Evans from Baker Tilly, for correctly placing France in first place, followed by the UK, then China in last place. We are contacting Mark to arrange a convenient time to hand over the prize.
More international patent applications are filed in China than in UK and France put together. However, China has a vast population 10 times greater than the combined populations of UK and France. This puts China firmly in last place.
France and the UK are close, having similar population sizes. However France emerged as the overall winner in 2012 due to more applications being filed in France.
We remain keen to hear from any members who would like to discuss how intellectual property might help them in their business we want IP to work for you, not against you.
Please contact Michael Skinner in the first instance (01902 271487).