Entries Tagged 'Systems & Procedures' ↓

What’s this ‘ere? These ‘ere thing in my ears! Ewe should know!

Two tags have to be worn by sheep over 12 months old and new EID tags are to become compulsory. Traceability from farm to shop is part of the intellectual assets designed to help control the spread of Foot & Mouth disease in future outbreaks.

Do you need to use electronic identification systems in your business?

We are all covered by rules and codes of conduct, moral, professional or legislative.

New Advertising Codes for all for advertisers and media owners  come into force on 1st September 2010. ‘They include general rules that state advertising must be responsible, must not mislead, or offend, and specific rules that cover advertising to children and ads for alcohol, gambling, motoring, health and financial products.’ More information from Committee of Advertising Practice.

The Office of Fair Trading runs an Approved Code of Practice for customer protection with members entitled to use a special logo. See if it fits your business by reading more.

In the competitive world of seed merchants the more outlets for your product the better.
Thompson Morgan have a well developed Affiliate Programme that works for websites like mine. All the hard work around product, payment, distribution and content management will be done by the brand owner.

In the unlikely event that you want to water your garden with a new irrigation system this summer try this affiliation link

It looks like Mossad have blown one of their trade secrets, the cloning of identities. On a serious note the USA have growing litigation based on their Uniform Trade Secrets Act and the UK may expect more action on this side of the pond.

Trade secrets should be protected from “misappropriation” by staff and industrial espionage. However you need good systems and policies to identify and control issues that may include breach of contract, breach of the duty, tortious interference and unfair competition.

Cases involving staff using USB sticks, personal email addresses and digital cameras may be hard to catch or prove, often only coming to light when damage is noticed.

Two American gurus of New Product Development Dr. Robert Cooper and Dr. Scott Edgett have badged their business as the Product Development Institute Inc.
Great for a consultancy business and the ‘world’s most widely implemented innovation system, Stage-Gate®’ must also benifit.

New product development is crucial to the health of business so keep up with the latest thoughts:

Winning at New Products: Accelerating the Process from Idea to Launch by Robert Cooper

Innovation Management and New Product Development by Dr Paul Trott

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Artists and designers may have a good understanding of Copyright and Design Rights but when it comes to exploiting the commercial applications then they need further advice. As a licensor you may worry that your customer will take the concept, as there is no copyright in an idea alone and run with it themselves. Before imparting information obtain a non-disclosure agreement or both sign a confidentiality letter.

Secrecy, confidentiality and non-disclosure are key elements of Intellectual Asset Protection

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Universecy

The headline from the Press and Journal following stories in the Daily Telegraph and the BBC is ‘North-east firm’s (Ling24) website pirated – Chinese company copies design‘.  The almost exact replica web site was a blatant attack on Ling24’s intellectual property and business.

Protection Tips Arising

Ensure you  understand the IP issues on your web site including copyright ownership, systems, usage policies, data rights etc.
Check for Google alerts on your key words – that is how this theft was discovered.
Be alert all sorts of digital misappropriations are taking place – a client’s subscription PDF was cloned in December and made available free via a social publishing web site.
Keep up to date, be vigilant and encourage your support networks to help.

Do you operate a safe technology environment to protect your employees and data? Are you ISO 27002 ‘Information technology – Security techniques – Code of practice for information security management’ compliant.

Employees
Misuse of computers by employees is a technology threat. Defamatory statements, internet breach of copyright and Emails containing racial slurs, pornographic images, ageist or gender related remarks can damage your business.To minimise liability employers must demonstrate reasonable precautions and due diligence. These reasonable precautions are part of your Intellectual Assets (IA).

Data
The Data Protection Act 1998 creates obligations on businesses about information held by them. Most businesses need to nominate a data controller and register under the act. A useful audit tool is available on the Information Commissioners pdf
Your own registration, policies and procedures are also part of your IA which may include backing up data regularly, offsite storage, disaster recovery/business continuity planning and the use of external services.