Slingsby Partners Gives Well-Received Lecture at Middlesex University
Anna Bools and Philip Slingsby were invited by Middlesex University to talk to students about Intellectual Property issues facing designers. Anna and Philip talked to around 60 students on Middlesex University’s Product Design, Product Design Engineering and Design Engineering courses.
Anna and Philip talked to students over Zoom (due to current Covid restrictions) about the fundamentals of what can be protected using copyright, trademarks, designs and patents. They also talked about patents and designs in more detail: describing differences and similarities between the two with reference to an example product. They covered the specifics of registered vs unregistered designs and the process of obtaining design rights. Finally, they covered the basics of ownership and disclosure. The talk was followed by a Q & A session.
The lecture received positive feedback from staff, students and alumni, with one second-year student writing: "Hands down the best info on IP we have had so far!" and a final-year student commenting: "Who better to learn copyright and patents from than 2 Patent Attorneys.". We look forward to engaging further with Middlesex University and its fantastic students in the future.
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Ahmed Patel, Lecturer in Product Design and Engineering, Middlesex University London:
“We run an annual Guest Lecture series of weekly hour-long talks for Product Design, Product Design Engineering and Design Engineering, but open to all at Middlesex University. These are a valuable part of our academic timetabling.
“We bring together a vibrant mix of speakers from the full spectrum of design and engineering. A mix of leading practitioners, opinion leaders, radical thinkers and emerging talents to inspire and support professional development in our students and staff. We've been lucky to been visited by so many amazing people over the last 10 years.
“Anna & Philip engaged a mixed cohort of second and final year students across multiple programmes with a brilliant masterclass on Intellectual Property; covering copyright, trademarks, patents, design protection, the differences between patents and design protection, ownership and disclosure. The talk was inspiring, informative and extremely well received. We look forward to hosting and engaging with both Anna and Philip again.”
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Anna Bools, Part-Qualified Patent Attorney, Slingsby Partners:
We really enjoyed giving a virtual lecture to students of the Design and Design Engineering departments at Middlesex University. The lecture series was very well organised and the staff and students made us feel instantly welcome as we gave the talk. We were particularly impressed with the engagement of the students during the Q&A session. We received far more questions than expected and each question had clearly been carefully considered. We are also pleased that a number of students with particular interests in IP have engaged with us electronically following the talk. Overall, we were glad to be able to impart some knowledge which could become useful to the students in their upcoming careers and look forward to the next opportunity to collaborate with Middlesex University’s Design departments.
