Businesses in every sector are under pressure to innovate to stay ahead of the competition. ‘’Open innovation’’ is a term that has come to describe innovation which extends beyond the traditional R&D department of a business and embraces a broader pool of talent and ideas within the whole business and frequently also extends to an external partnership with a third party collaborator to assist with and accelerate the process.
In our second publication Data issues in innovation and collaborations, following on from our Open Innovation: Collaborate To Innovate report, we take a more detailed look at how data frequently plays a central role in the drive towards ‘’open’’ innovation and the significant value attached to it. Data can be used to generate new products or services and revenue streams, to identify efficiencies within an organisation and reduce costs, and to inform strategic decision-making. Read more
On Thursday 7 November, our London IP team hosted a panel discussion and roundtable session on 'Harnessing the power of diversity in IP'. This was part of an ongoing campaign with World IP Review (WIPR), to celebrate the achievements of influential women in IP and to improve gender diversity in the profession.Read more
The BBC thriller The Capture has captured the public’s imagination with its portrayal of the relationship between deepfakes and CCTV evidence, and the serious legal risks associated with this technology. In a recent report published by non-profit research institute Data & Society, deepfakes were found to be “no new threat to democracy”, in that audiovisual … Read more
“Contextual commerce”, the next retail frontier? One-click purchasing platforms that link the immediate “want” with the immediate “sell”. Read all about it in the latest edition in our Future of Consumer series on challenges facing the consumer and retail sector: Do you want it right now? The exciting future of contextual commerce. E-commerce has revolutionised … Read more
In our recent report on our clients’ perspectives on managing innovation in their organisations “Open Innovation: Collaborate To Innovate” we shared our insights into the world of open collaboration assisted by contributions from a wide range of our clients. As part of our analysis we highlighted the main legal considerations that arise in restructuring a collaboration arrangement. In our first publication following on from the report – Getting the IP right in collaborations – we take a more detailed look at some of the principal intellectual property issues and set out practical steps to consider when embarking on collaboration projects. Read more
Today our updated Brexit Legal Guide was released which contains a section on intellectual property and pharmaceutical regulation. Below is a message from our Chair and Senior Partner James Palmer which accompanied the updated guide. Dear clients and professional colleagues, The outcome of the June 2016 UK referendum on EU membership ushered in a period of increasing … Read more
Innovation that happens in an "open" collaborative context – either internally or with external partners - can provide faster, better, more holistic results to accelerate innovation and improve competitive advantage, concludes our new report: Open Innovation: Collaborate to Innovate based on "innovation" interviews with our clients.
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With the release of Federal Law Gazette dated 25 April 2019, the new Trade Secrets Protection Act (Gesetz zum Schutz von Geschäftsgeheimnissen – GeschGehG) came into force in Germany... Read more
HSF's Consumer sector team (including Joel Smith, Victoria Horsey, Sarah Burke and Rachel Montagnon, from our IP group) have just a feature article published in June's PLC Magazine on Challenges in the Consumer Sector.This is the first in a series of three articles examining the current issues facing the sector.
The article examines the impact of transformative technology and looks in particular at AI, AR & VR (including IP aspects), data commercialisation, Internet of Things, contextual commerce, data privacy, cyber security, targeted advertising, and on-line infringement of IP rights.
For more on these and other issues affecting the Consumer sector see our Future of Consumer hub. Read more
