Anatomy of a Trade Secret Misappropriation Court Case by Donal O’Connell, Managing Director, Chawton Innovation Services   Background A company, called “ABCD” for example, has a portfolio of IP assets, included a number of trade secrets. These trade secrets assets may be found across different functions in the organisation and include: Some algorithms within the […]

IP Licensing by Donal O’Connell, Managing Director, Chawton Innovation Services What is an IP license? An IP license in its simplest form is an agreement where an IP owner (the Licensor) permits another person (the Licensee) to engage in activities that, in the absence of the IP License Agreement, would infringe the Licensor’s legal rights […]

Why and how to Patent Search by Donal O’Connell, Managing Director, Chawton Innovation Services Prior art: Prior art, or state of the art or background art, in most systems of patent law constitutes all information that has been made available to the public in any form before a given date that might be relevant to […]

The potential pitfalls of embracing open-source software by Donal O’Connell, Managing Director, Chawton Innovation Services   Open-source software: Open-source software is computer software with its source code made freely available via a license in which the copyright holder provides the rights to study, change, and distribute the software to anyone and for any purpose. “Source […]