On 28/10/2011 10:42, Man at B&Q wrote:
On Oct 28, 9:14 am, wrote:
On Oct 28, 8:04 am, Matty wrote:
This is in the nature of a d-i-y project, typical of New Zealanders.
Perhaps some of you in the UK know of Boxpark.
Boxpark director Roger Wade seems peeved that a temporary mall has
been built in Christchurch NZ after some 6000 earthquakes have
demolished much of the city..
The mall has been built out of shipping containers.
Does Boxpark want money for this rather obvious idea?
Is Boxpark subject to earthquakes? I think not.
Can somebody please tell Roger Wade to pull his head in?
http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/newsdeta...storyid=207705
The director of a British company taking legal action against
Christchurch's City Mall project wants an apology.
The Restart project is being accused of copying a pop-up mall in
London.
Boxpark director Roger Wade says members of the Restart team visited
the Shoreditch mall in April to inspire ideas.
He says he wants to stress they aren't doing this for financial gain.
"We just want the Restart initiative and the Government who's backing
the Restart initiative to recognise, as already has been recognised in
emails that we've recived from them, that this idea to create a pop-up
mall from chipping containers came from Boxpark."
Mr Wade says if this happened, he would be happy to sit down with
Restart organisers and talk it through.
I suspect that Boxpark don't want to let this go - because if they do,
they have little hope of enforcing a patent anywhere else.
But - a condition of granting a patent is "must not be obvious".
(and from my experience, I think the threshold should be very, very
much higher, i.e. unless it took a lot of time and money to develop,
and is genuinely clever - then it doesn't deserve a patent)
As shipping containers are frequently used as temporary offices/
industrial/residential units - it's obvious.
(and in UK/Europe, you can't get a patent on a business process - US,
you can).
Nor can you get one in the UK once the idea has been disclosed. In the
US you have 12 months from first public disclosure.
MBQ
Roger Wade appears to be your typical British businessman in the Lord
Sugar mode i.e. a spiv with no vision.
These guys OTOH
http://travel.nytimes.com/2006/09/17...7foraging.html