IP and Food

Gary Townley

Jane Lambert

Tomorrow, between 10:00 and 13:30, Gary Townley, business and events manager at the Intellectual Property Office will talk about IP for the food and drink industry at Northampton Central Library. You can register for the event here.

I don't know what Gary will be talking about but there is a lot of IP connected with food and drink:

• plant breeders' rights for new grain and seed varieties (see my article on Protecting Investment in New Plant Varieties 4 May 2016 Linkedin);
• geographical indications for food and agricultural products;
• patents for new agricultural, food preparation, processing and distribution technology;
• trade marks for food and drink brands and 
• passing off for hotels and restaurants but not plastic lemons.

As I reported in Thought for Food 26 Sept 2017 NIPC London Gary has already spent the last two days at the Takeaway & Restaurant Innovation 2017 Expo.

IP in food production, preparation, marketing and distribution is a subject of which I do have had a lot of experience having been in some important cases and having advised and represented some rising stars in the industry. If you are involved in that sector I should be glad to talk to you. Call +44 (0)20 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.

Brantano - IP and Insolvency

Red Court Shoe

Author Almighty1

Reproduction licensed by the author

Source Wikipedia

Jane Lambert

An interesting headline in the East Midlands section of The Business Desk website that caught my eye was Brantano IP assets up for sale 22 June 2017. The article stated that:

"Administrators of Brantano, the stricken Leicestershire shoe firm, are selling off the firm’s brand and intellectual property assets via Metis Partners."

Metis Partners describes itself as "a multi-disciplinary IP firm with a proven track record in the assessment, exploitation, monetisation, valuation and sale of intellectual property assets (“IP assets”)". Part of its business is the sale of intellectual property rights of troubled businesses.  The firm keeps a blog called "The Musings of Metis" with some interesting articles on this topic including Insolvency and the Hidden Brand Benefit 23 Aug 2013 and the Hidden Treasure of IP After Insolvency  28 June 2016 by Michelle Korman and Negotiation 31 Jan 2015 by Morven Fraser.

I found the following announcement on Meris' website:

"Tony Barrell and Mike Jervis of PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, the Joint Administrators of Brantano Retail Limited (in Administration) (“Brantano” or the “Company”), have appointed Metis Partners to support the marketing and sale of the intellectual property (“IP”) assets relating to the Company."

These include:

• "Goodwill Rights in the Brantano Corporate and Product Brands
• Rights in the Registered Trade Marks and Unregistered Trade Marks
• Rights in Unregistered Designs
• Website Content & Domain Name
• Software Behind the E-commerce Website."

Anybody thinking of acquiring any of those assets must submit his or her bid by 12:00 on 30 June 2017 which does not leave much time for carrying out searches, risk analyses and asset valuations.  If a bid is to be anything more than guesswork a prospective purchaser will need professional advice on the accounting, legal and marketing issues.  If a bid is accepted, specialist legal and other professional advice will also be required in the negotiation and drafting of the assignments and other agreements.

Anyone requiring amplification or clarification of any of those points should call me on 020 7404 5252 during office hours or send me a message through my contact form.