Appointment strengthens Astrum team

PATENT attorneys Astrum have made a key appointment to the expanding team with the appointment of Paula Pegler.

Paula, pictured right, joins the Newport-based company as a paralegal, overseeing patent applications and supporting managing director Gillian Whitfield, pictured left, who will step up the development of the fast-expanding business.

The pair have worked together previously, before Dr Whitfield set up Astrum. She said, “People qualified to Paula’s level are very rare outside London, so I’m glad that she has decided to join us.

“Paula’s work on the procedural aspect of patents will allow me to concentrate on bringing in new clients and grow Astrum successfully. Her appointment will herald the start of another significant chapter in the company’s development.”

Paula will work as the formalities administrator, drawing up the documents for a patent application, monitoring dates and liaising with clients. In turn, Dr Whitfield, who will be president of the Newport Chamber of Trade (ngb2b) from July, will continue building links with technology and innovative companies in South Wales and further afield.

She said, “I am pleased to be part of the team at Astrum, and I look forward to working with Gill and supporting her in the future development of the company.”

Looking to the past to help our future

We cannot compete with the labour costs of emerging countries, so the best way Wales can do business is through innovation – but how can we inspire the next generation of industrial pioneers?

Here, Dr Gillian Whitfield argues that it should be encouraged in schools, by looking to an illustrious past of Welsh invention

YOU may be surprised to hear this, but it was the Welsh that first flew, made the internet possible, ensured that climate change became an international issue, revolutionised the way we shop, and developed the system that would play a huge role in delivering Britain from the Nazis.

Saundersfoot carpenter William Frost flew his creation, Frost Airship Glider, over seven years before the Wright brothers made history – and for a lot longer and a lot further. Unfortunately for him, the occasion was observed rather than recorded. His plane was destroyed in a storm that night, and he was too poor to rebuild it or renew its patent.

Donald Davies developed packet switching, which allows data to be transferred between computer networks, essential for operating the internet - connecting you to Facebook, for example. Treorchy-born Davies is credited with the advancement along with US scientist Paul Baran, who independently developed it for military purposes.

Abertillery-born Sir David Brunt’s work on air quality and pollution, which began while investigating poison gas dispersal during the First World War, led to fluid dynamics, and how we detect weather change. Another distinguished Welsh meteorologist, Sir John Houghton is co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and lead editor of the first three IPCC reports that informed decision-making at the Rio, Kyoto and Buenos Aires environmental summits.

Pryce Pryce-Jones built and operated the first mail order business in the world. From Newtown, he sent goods all around the globe, to as far away as Australia, and his customers included Queen Victoria and Florence Nightingale.

Edward Bowen, a Swansea boy, developed and almost certainly saved the radar from mothballing after it went wrong in front of top brass. In turn, radar was to produce an early warning system that gave the RAF the ability to fight and defeat a vastly superior Luftwaffe in the first stage of Operation Sealion, the German invasion of Britain, which never took place after they were defeated in the Battle of Britain.

William Jones invented Pi, Arthur Moore – upon hearing the Titanic’s SOS call in his homemade wireless studio in Blackwood – discovered that radio waves could travel far greater distances than first assumed, and William Robert Grove invented the Fuel Cell. Alan Cox developed the linux kernel, an important part of open source software, William Morgan, invented the Vacuum Tube and the Coolidge Tube, and was the founding father of modern actuarial science. Dr Richard Pryce developed the times tables as a teaching aid, Robert Recorde published the first English language book on Algebra which included the equals symbol for the first time, while Alfred Russel Wallace worked with Darwin on the theory of evolution.

These were brilliant Welsh men who helped shape the world in which we live today, but are there other ways in which we can tap into their brilliance? Can we utilise them a second time around, use their example to spark a new generation of Welsh innovators?

The first question should be: why should we be looking backwards when planning for the future? Every economy needs a competitive edge, and Wales finds itself alongside other Western countries in facing huge challenges from emerging nations, while never having enjoyed the same levels of wealth as some other regions in Europe.

There is no way that we can compete with countries like China and India on pricing. The Welsh Assembly Government understands this, and has decided that the best way that Wales can compete globally is through innovation. It has set about this task by demolishing the walls between its education and enterprise departments, as well as establishing incubators, support networks and, now, the single flexible investment fund.

Many of facilities are only available once you’ve taken the step of setting up your own business. But it is at school level that Wales can really make a difference in supporting innovation and entrepreneurship. Students should be encouraged to have the courage of their own convictions, and given the tools to act upon them.

We can used the examples provided by Welsh pioneers to demonstrate that background, location and circumstances need not be a barrier to innovation, while demonstrating that education is the key to a successful future.

Would the Assembly consider introducing a Welsh Innovation Day, a once-a-year event across the country - and peculiar to Wales - where students would be able to study the lives and achievements of our inventors, moving on to examine the innovation process before considering and developing their own ideas.

This last part could form the basis of a nationwide competition. It could be organised by teachers and local authorities on either an individual or collaborative basis. There could be tie-ins with local business that could bring them into the classroom, to impart their experience and oversee projects.

They could be asked to financially support the initiative, and that doesn’t only mean prizes. Businesses could back projects with promises to move them into research and development if they are good enough. My own business, for example, could offer to patent innovations arising from such projects and maintain the patents until such a time when their originator is able to develop them into a commercial viability.

It would be easy to dismiss this idea, to argue that it is beyond the abilities of students. But it should be remembered that children do contribute to innovation. Heinz, for example, is forward thinking enough to have its own children’s focus group. Its contribution to the world was the squeezy ketchup bottle that most of us now use.

A Welsh Innovation Day would allow the Assembly to pursue its aims of promoting innovation in education, fostering schools-industry links and shared skills, through an event that it unique to Wales. It may be enough to give us that all-important competitive edge.

- This first appeared in The Business magazine of the South Wales Argus on Monday, May 5

A problem with US law

Thousands of US patent decisions involving claims worth billions of dollars may be invalid because as many as 46 of the 74 judges who decide patent appeals and disputes on the Board of Patent Appeals and Interferences were not properly appointed, it has been reported.

Welsh innovators who gave us the modern world

Despite Wales’ relatively small population, it can boast scores of inventors who have played significant parts in shaping our world.

On World Intellectual Property Day (April 26), European patent attorney Dr Gillian Whitfield profiled some of those innovators, and argues why their achievements should be used to inspire a new generation of pioneers

THERE have been times when Wales has been accused of being too parochial, so it may come as a surprise to learn that it was the Welsh that first flew, pioneered radar, developed the internet, made climate change an international issue, changed shopping habits - and developed the BBC’s pips.

Intellectual Property means that if you created something, you can own it, and there are worldwide laws to protect your creations from being copied by others.

Innovation remains at the heart of the Welsh Assembly Government’s economic policy. It understands that we won’t compete with emerging nations like China on labour costs. So we have to look to countries like Germany to build a highly-skilled, high value economy.

Wouldn’t it be good if the Assembly was to introduce a Welsh Inventors Day in schools, drawing upon the work of these pioneers to encourage tomorrow’s innovators? Students would hear more about their achievements, and could be encouraged to believe in their own creative abilities. Tie-ins with local companies could strengthen the initiative and benefit both schools and business.

Here are some examples of Wales’ rich legacy of inventors, and the inspiring lives they led.

Edward Bowen
Born in Swansea, Edward ‘Taffy’ Bowen was a major figure in the team that developed radar, which in turn played a huge role in saving Britain from Nazi invasion.

Graduating from Swansea University College, Bowen was recruited by Robert Watson-Watt, the ‘father’ of radar, and developed the transmitter for ground-based radar. This crucial technological advantage that Britain held over Germany may never have been developed into an early warning system after a demonstration failed in front of top brass. But Bowen, who was later awarded the CBE and became a Freeman of the Royal Society, worked through the night to fix it.

Radar was as important as the Spitfire, as it allowed a vastly-outnumbered RAF to know when the Luftwaffe was coming. Unable to win air superiority during the Battle of Britain, Hitler shelved Operation Sea Lion - the invasion of the UK. It was a fundamental strategic error and led, five years later, to the defeat of Nazi Germany. Bowen died in 1991.

David Brunt
It should be Abertillery-born Sir David Brunt that we thank for the science of air quality and pollution. He first became involved while serving in the army in the First World War, investigating how poison gases were dispersed.

A brilliant mathematician, Sir David joined the Met Office after the war, and used his skills in statistics to chart fluid dynamics, or the movement of gases, which causes weather change.

Working at a time when airplanes were having an increasing impact on the atmosphere, his later research concentrated on weather conditions and human health, concluding that the ideal climate for man was New Zealand. He died in 1965.

Donald Davies

Packet switching allows data to be transferred between computer networks. Most of us take this for granted. However, had it not been for the work of Treorchy-born Donald Davies, we would not have the internet.

Graduated from Imperial College London, he went to work with Alan Turing, but it wasn’t long before he earned his mentor’s ire, spotting and pointing out errors in Turing’s seminal paper, On Computable Numbers.

He developed a packet switched network independently of American scientist Paul Baran, who originated the same system for the US military. Both are credited with its creation, although Davies focused on creating resource sharing. Appointed a CBE in 1983 and FRS in 1987, Davies died in 2000.

William Frost
A carpenter from Saundersfoot, Bill Frost first came up with the idea of constructing a manned flying machine some time in the 1890s.

His creation, Frost Airship Glider, took to the skies on September 24, 1896, over seven years before the Wright brothers made their historic flight. Observers say it covered around 500 metres – considerably further than Wilber Wright’s 120-feet, 12-second effort – before crashing into a bush.

Unfortunately for Frost, the event was witnessed and not recorded. But he did register the Frost Airship Glider (patent number 1894-20431) in 1894. Sadly, through poverty, the patent lapsed four years later. He died without wealth or recognition in 1935.

John Houghton
Another distinguished Welsh meteorologist, Sir John Houghton is co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and lead editor of the first three IPCC reports that were to inform the decision-making at the Rio, Kyoto and Buenos Aires summits.

Once a professor in atmospheric physics at the University of Oxford, Sir John – CBE and FRS – is a former chief executive at the Met Office and founder of the Hadley Centre, the Met Office’s research centre for climate change.

Martha Hughes Cannon

Llandudno-born Hughes Cannon emigrated with her parents to the United States when she was three, and would go on to become a doctor, suffragist and the first woman ever elected to the US Senate.

Her family became Mormons and moved to Salt Lake City. She worked at Deseret Hospital from 1882 to 1886, and the Utah State Department of Health is currently housed in the Martha Hughes Cannon Health Building there.

Hughes Cannon became involved in the Utah Equal Suffrage Association and, following the restoration of women’s right to vote, she successfully stood as a Democrat against her Republican candidate husband Angus and went on to serve two terms as Utah’s Senator.

During her time in office, she successfully pressed for funding for speech and hearing-impaired students, introduced a law regulating working conditions for women and girls, and established a board of health. She died in 1932.

William Jones

3.14159265358979323846… and on and on it goes. Pi, the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, and a seemingly endless number, was first devised by Welsh mathematician William Jones.

Born in Llanfihangel Tre'r Beirdd in Anglesey in 1675, Jones taught maths on board ships and in London, as well as working in government.

A close friend of Sir Isaac Newton, he published Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos in 1706, a theorem on differential calculus and infinite series.

His son, also called William Jones, discovered the Indo-European language group, which includes Welsh.

Arthur Moore

It was in the early hours of April 15, 1912 that Arthur ‘Artie’ Moore, sat in his homemade wireless studio near Blackwood received the world’s first SOS call, from the Titanic.

It had previously been thought that wireless could travel just a fraction of the 3,000 miles between South Wales and the Titanic’s last known position. Artie’s discovery brought him to the attention of Guglielmo Marconi, who had sent the first ever wireless communication over water from Lavernock Point, near Cardiff.

Artie joined the Marconi Company and worked on radio fittings on military ships. Later, he developed the thermionic valve that allowed further radio advancement and patented an early form of sonar, before his death in 1949.

Pryce Pryce-Jones

Newtown in Powys is where Pryce Pryce-Jones built one of the very first mail order companies into a global business.

Pryce-Jones had established himself as a successful draper when the arrival of the railway and an expanded Post Office led him to realize that remote rural customers could be reached by sending them leaflets from which they could order.

As the railway network grew, Pryce-Jones was able to count Queen Victoria and Florence Nightingale among his customers, and sell Welsh flannel in America and Australia.

He built the Royal Welsh Warehouse, a Newtown landmark, and was also knighted and served as MP for Montgomeryshire. He died in 1920, before the Great Depression led to his company being sold.

Other notable Welsh pioneers

Alan Cox
Developed the linux kernel, an important part of open source software.

William Robert Grove
Invented the Fuel Cell.

Frank Hope-Jones
Developed the Synchronome electric clock system – the 'pip' signal first broadcast by the BBC.

Dyfrig Jones
Developed the theory of planetary radiation.

Ernest Jones
Introduced psychoanalysis into Britain and North America.

William Morgan
Inventor of the Vacuum Tube and the Coolidge Tube, and founding father of modern actuarial science.

Dr Richard Pryce
Developed the times tables as a teaching aid.

Robert Recorde
Published the first English language book on Algebra which included the equals symbol for the first time.

Herbert Ackroyd Stuart
Developed and patented a compression ignition engine in 1885.

Sir Tudor Thomas
World famous eye surgeon, he pioneered ophthalmic corneaplasty in the 1930s.

Alfred Russel Wallace
Worked with Darwin on the theory of evolution.

- This feature first appeared in the Western Mail's Magazine on Saturday, April 26, 2008

Let's Face(book) the music and dance

MARK Zuckerberg, the multi-millionaire founder of Facebook, is facing a trip to the courts to fight over the trademark for his popular internet site.

Former classmate Aaron Greenspan says that the term "facebook" was in common use across the Harvard campus where the website was started. As such, he says, Zuckerberg had no right to trademark it back in 2005. Mr Greenspan, who runs a business selling a variety of software, wants to use Facebook in a title of a book he's writing.

No masterpiece

ANOTHER troll story, this time from the US. A small, Pennsylvania-based patent company Rembrandt is suing 14 US businesses, among them some of the best known corporations in America.

Rembrandt claims it owns the rights to part of the technology being used to facilitate the digital TV switchover. It wants millions of dollars in royalties from companies like Walt Disney Co's ABC, General Electric Co's NBC Universal, CBS Corp and News Corp's Fox Broadcasting for patent infringement.

Now the American Antitrust Institute, a non-profit advocacy group, is asking federal regulators to bar Rembrandt from enforcing its patent. The Government may be persuaded, as it has ploughed $1.5 billion into the switchover, giving $40 coupons to every home in the US.

Stripping out the stripes

THE question of when is a trademark not a trademark can now be answered by adidas, which would say: “When it is two stripes and not three.”

Tired of lookie-likey, value-priced sports gear from the likes of C&A, H&M and other manufacturers, the German manufacturer took the matter to the European Court of Justice, pointing out that similar designs often feature two vertical, parallel stripes of equal width.

Judges dismissed arguments that stripe motifs should be free to be used by anyone, reported Earth Times. Instead, they found that by consumers establishing a link between the two designs it was enough to cause confusion.

It was the end of a 10-year-plus battle. Anne Putz, adidas spokeswoman, told Bloomberg: “We do not seek to prevent the use of decoration, but the use of striped markings that confuse consumers.''