Essex Technology & Innovation Centre
What is the Essex Technology & Innovation Centre?
The Essex Technology & Innovation Centre is the centre piece of ExDRA’s delivery of the Essex Innovation Strategy.
Opened in November 2005, it exists to develop emerging and early stage innovative businesses that have high growth potential, offering a stimulating working environment with a variety of on-site support. The Centre is the ideal solution for individuals and small scale collaborations taking their first steps in starting or developing their business.
Occupying a pleasant location in rural Essex, just outside Ongar, with convenient access from the M11, Chelmsford, Brentwood and Harlow, the Centre is ideally located. But it’s not just about floorspace - businesses have access to a wide range of expert advice as well as academic and commercial contacts, that will provide all the necessary support to encourage growth and ensure the success of the business.
Providing 30 modern high quality self-contained office units on flexible and competitive terms, together with conference facilities and access to a network of professionals that could support you and your business idea, the Essex Technology & Innovation Centre is a unique solution that ExDRA is proud to be providing.
So, if you have a great business idea why not give the Essex Technology & Innovation Centre a call – we’ll be only too happy to help.
Latest news from the Centre and events taking place there are shown below.
Unique, affordable patent protection for SMEs and start-ups
Date: 13 August 2008
New ideas are the life blood of business
An idea can turn a private individual into a business or transform a small business into a bigger one. But without patent protection none of this may happen.
Recent research* indicates that only about 11% of UK businesses use the patent system, compared to Japan and other innovative countries where the proportion is dramatically higher.
High costs associated with UK patent protection may explain why so few UK businesses use the patent system.
Historically there were just two patenting choices:
1. Pay a professional a high fee (perhaps several £000's plus patent office fees) to produce a patent specification
2. “Do-it-yourself” at very low cost to produce a patent specification hardly anyone will respect.
Now, there is a third choice:
Patent495 is an innovative online product that offers affordable patent protection for SMEs and start-ups.
The basic service which gets a patent application filed at the UK Patent Office within 15 days costs £495 + VAT. A priority service offering a filed application within 5 days costs £595 + VAT. In both cases you get professional edge at a cost not even approaching normal professional fees.
How it works
Once the selected service is paid for online using the highly secure PayPal payments service, the user can then access models and templates which provide all the information and guidance necessary for a lay person to describe his or her invention, with the relevant amount of detail.
Once completed, an experienced patent professional uses the information to produce the all-important Statement of Claim, which is the most crucial, difficult and time-consuming part of a patent specification.
After filing the user will receive an official filing certificate from the UK Patent Office showing the official filing date and the patent application number.
What you see is what you get
Patent495 is purely an online patent application filing service. If the user wants additional services or guidance then he/she will need to use the services of a conventional patent attorney. Patent495 is provided by PatentStart Ltd which is part of HLBBshaw, a UK-wide intellectual property firm. Users of Patent495 receive a £250 voucher which can be used to pay for any additional services if they choose to use HLBBshaw.
The Patent495 product and further information about PatentStart Ltd is available at: www.patent495.com
Further information about HLBBshaw can be found at: www.hlbbshaw.com
*Research carried out by PatentStart Ltd
