Team:UCL E/Business/Legal

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Trademarks

In order to successfully grow the company, the name “Darwin Toolbox” would need to be trademarked in order to stop others imitating it or otherwise damaging the brand. There are currently a [http://www.ipo.gov.uk/tmtext wide range of companies] that are already registered using the “Darwin” name. However, none of these use “Darwin Toolbox”, and so no claims to this name can be made. In order to register a trademark, the product class, or classes, must first be established. Initially, Darwin Toolbox may be best described by class 9:

“Scientific, nautical, surveying, photographic, cinematographic, optical, weighing, measuring, signalling, checking (supervision), life-saving and teaching apparatus and instruments; apparatus and instruments for conducting, switching, transforming, accumulating, regulating or controlling electricity; apparatus for recording, transmission or reproduction of sound or images; magnetic data carriers, recording discs; compact discs, DVDs and other digital recording media; mechanisms for coin-operated apparatus; cash registers, calculating machines, data processing equipment, computers; computer software; fire-extinguishing apparatus.” Nice Classification, 10th edition, version 2014 (NCL(10-2014))

However, other classes must also be considered as the product develops, especially if reagents are also to be supplied with Darwin Toolbox branding. Classes that may be spanned include classes 1 (enzyme preparations for industrial usage), 5 (enzyme preparations for medical usage), and 16 (teaching materials) , amongst others.

Intellectual property

The three components of Darwin Toobox cannot currently be patented as there is no “inventive step” in making these pre-existing technologies smaller/portable. Thus, Darwin Toolbox cannot be patented as it does not meet the required criteria under the [http://www.epo.org/law-practice/legal-texts/epc.html European Patent Convention]. However, in order to protect any future intellectual property that might arise, it may be prudent to require any parties spoken to by the Darwin Toolbox team to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements in order to prevent others building on work carried out in the development of Darwin Toolbox.

Social Enterprise

As described in our company vision, we wish Darwin Toolbox to increase access to this technology and awareness of synthetic biology. Therefore, requiring all parties to sign non-disclosure agreements and heavily protecting our intellectual property is somewhat contradictory to this goal. Therefore, the Darwin Toolbox will be launched as an open-source, social enterprise. In addition to enabling the free-trade of information associated with this technology, it will markedly simplify all of the legal issues associated with setting up this company and substantially reduce costs. Establishing world-wide patents for equipment as complex as Darwin Toolbox would cost in excess of $40,000 – if the technology is made open-source, these funds could instead be diverted into product development.