Do you know what a trade secret is? Do you know how to go about identifying and protecting your trade secrets?  Read on to find out more about how you can manage these vital assets for your business. Trade secrets are an unregistered form of IP.  There are no records maintained by Intellectual Property Offices. [...]

If you haven't already considered what New Year's resolutions you should be planning and adhering to, we have a suggestion to make. Please remember to consider Intellectual Property (IP) at the start of a project. Don't leave it until you have already made substantial progress, only to discover that there is a problem with the [...]

Cheerful tunes blare out of the doorways of every store, a multi coloured array of lights fill the skyline, the image of a large jolly man with a big bushy white beard appears in random places and smells of cinnamon and nutmeg invoke a feeling of warmth and nostalgia – these are the myriad signs, [...]

Mariah Carey’s Christmas hit “All I want for Christmas is You” has recently been declared as the most downloaded Christmas song on the streaming service Spotify. It beat such “classics” as Last Christmas by Wham and other traditional hits by Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams and Brenda Lee. If this doesn’t amaze the reader I’m sure [...]

Have you finalised your business goals for 2020 and have you included an IP Strategy as part of these goals? Intellectual Property is an integral component of any successful business and includes a company’s patents, trade marks, designs, copyrights and trade secrets. An Intellectual Property Strategy is a plan, in line with your business goals, [...]

We are delighted to announce that Fidelma Whelan has come on board at M&D as our new Managing Director. Fidelma has a background in management consultancy, finance and operations. She has worked around the globe, including Japan, Tanzania, Germany and the UK and across many different sectors, from public to private. She is looking forward [...]

On 2 December 2019, the Irish  Patents Office changed  its name to the “Intellectual Property Office of Ireland” (IPOI).   The title of the Controller of Patents Designs and Trade Marks  or CEO  of the Office  also changed to the “Controller of Intellectual Property”.  The Irish Patents Office first opened its doors in 1929 for the [...]

We are delighted to announce that Denis McCarthy celebrates his 40 year anniversary with M&D. It has been a great journey together and M&D looks forward to more years of his steady stewardship of our patents business. A European and chartered patent attorney and trade mark attorney, Denis joined the firm in 1979 having graduated [...]

We are delighted to report that we were recently involved in securing Northern Ireland Water Limited’s first ever patent. The NI Water Research, Development and Innovation team ran a highly successful pilot and after much hard work and dedication developed the iCat iSR Signature Design.  The clever patented device and system enhance customer supply resilience [...]

We reviewed the Global Innovation Index (GII) with interest today. It has been released by the World Intellectual Property Organisation, INSEAD and Cornell University and is the 12th global index of innovation to date. For more than a decade, the GII has fostered national innovation strategies and international debates on innovation. The GI places innovation [...]