Proposal for a UK Solicitors-only IP Group

If you practice as a solicitor in England and have not been contacted by Shireen - get in touch.

Sadly regulation seems set to divide even SOLO IP practitioners. Creating a practising solicitor-only group allows you to concentrate on things like Investors in People and Lexcel accreditation that may bring down the cost of the dreaded professional indemnity insurance. Lexcel is run by the Law Society and accredits practice management. I agree that practice management is the key to managing risk but I don't agree that paying someone else to confirm that I manage my practice well is a good idea - especailly in these times when it is difficult to persuade clients to pay their bills. The process of accreditation usually requires the production of a lot of paperwork and manuals - the sort of thing that is needed to communicate across an organisation so for true SOLOs its a bit redundant.

One of the most important things for good practice managment is a good database and mine MARCO helps me enormously. Special 2009 deals are available for group members. OK thats an advert as my company aims to make a profit out of licensing the software - haven't got anywhere near it yet - but there's always hope. Meanwhile I would hate to see anyone exposing themselves to risk because they cannot afford practice management system.

Happy Holidays

Lessons of Intelmark

Flipping through the Financial Times How to Spend it supplement over lunch as every SOLO practitioner (who gets a free copy) does at this time of year gave rise to a discussion of whether under current law this stunning advert takes advantage of the 007 brand .

To half the office - those with good eyes - the small print legend Bahama Islands 10:07 >makes the link. The other half of the office says just nice advertising but interesting that even the big brands play with each other. Now we are loooking for educational comments please. But I must say Sean Connery washes up well. Of course it might be licensed use ...

Contribute to the training effort and have your say.

New name, new website, same old headache, speedier recovery?

The new Intellectual Property Office or IPO (formerly UK-IPO, formerly Patent Office) website has just gone live. It's divided between pages that are for the use of practitioners (the Professional bit) and those for the use of laymen and amateurs (the standard bit, or IP-lite if you prefer). You can switch between the two, using the little box at the top right hand corner of the active part of the web page. Once on the Profession pages, the Law & Practice, Forms & Fees and Online Services bits are easy to access. The IPO, to its credit, sought and received user input in the form of that cute little software that lets people sort cards corresponding to their frequency of use of different pages on the site.

There's always the headache of bookmarks being lost, but the IPO reckons that users will be redirected to the the 100 most heavily-used bookmarks, which should soften the blow.

Can I suggest that, through the Comments feature of this blog, we take note of the new site's good points and bad points? I had hoped that the page background of the Professional and standard pages would be in different colours, so that users could instantly see if they were in the right place for forms and fees or if they were about to be confronted with Novelty Norvello ...

Rethinking insurance

I am pleased to hear that the Law Society is considering staggering the renewal dates for Professional Indemnity insurance and a return to the Solicitors Indeminty Fund (SIF) (although whether the latter is the best option is not something on which I am qualified to comment).

Clearly something drastic was needed following the insurance fiasco firms faced this summer. This resulted in a six fold rise in the number of firms that went into the Assigned Risks Pool – a place normally reserved for firms with poor claims records, or some other serious problem. As the insurers were taking their time in issuing quotes it was scary. Many of us were left imagining how awful it would be to end up in the ARP on the one hand, and then thinking surely that's impossible given that I have a completely unblemished claim free record. What I hated the most about the experience was that one was completely powerless to do anything about it. Only 3 insurers would look at IP work, so this so called competitive market place where one could shop around was simply non existent. What made matters worse was that some brokers were implying that IP was a No Go area - far too risky to entertain.

Interestingly, some of us had a meeting with Redvers Cunningham of the Bar Mutual Insurance Fund Ltd. He is also a director of PAMIA. Amazingly he told us that IP is in fact one of the lowest risk areas of work – particularly where that work is done by practitioners who specialise in the area. So, I hope the Law Society’s PII group will speak to knowledgeable individuals like Redvers when reviewing PII.

VAT Change for SOLOs

I've been struggling with the VAT change. I've dredged up from my memory the horrors of bills with two VAT rates so I was pleased to find this paragraph in the detailed VAT guide rather than the confusing summary that arrived in the post.

If you are making a single supply of a service which is nevertheless carried out over a period of time which spans the change in rate (e.g. the service provided by a solicitor in preparing a will) the whole supply can be charged at the new 15% rate. Any VAT already accounted for at 17.5% (e.g. on payments on account made before 1 December 2008) may be adjusted using the special change of rate rules described in paragraph 3.1.

I think my IP jobs are analogous to preparing a will so I have stopped fretting as to whether I need to bill all my work in progress before the end of the week. Anyone have thoughts ? The idea of being asked to sub up the 2.5% to the VAT man because I have made a mistake and charged the lower rate when I should have charged the higher one.

So its back to the credit control , oh joy

After-the-event Insurance, and possible Christmas drinks

I have been sitting for the past couple of weeks on a proposal concerning free drinks for members of the group, for which an apology is clearly in order.  In fact, the drinks are not entirely free: the proposal comes from a friend in the ATE insurance business, who would very much like an hour of your time in return for which he will sponsor a SoloIP Christmas drinks event somewhere in London, probably around the Temple (subject to finding a room).

In addition to the drink(s), you get an hour CPD.  And some invaluable knowledge about ATE insurance, which I for one consider extremely important when dealing with impecunious clients who need to sue infringers ...  and I doubt I am the only one with such clients.

Please could I have an indication of interest in this, so I know whether we are going to be able to do something?  Either before Christmas (best) or if necessary in the New Year.

The Solo Practice university

Here is a link to a podcast that is likely to be of interest to SoloIP practitioners: Charon QC (alias - well, taht would be telling) has an interview with Susan Cartier Liebel, author of the Build a Solo Practice LLC blog in the States, and founder of the Solo Practice University - which Charon descrives as "a very innovative concept for US lawyers to continue their training under the guidance of experts where their law school left off."

His description of the podcast goes on:

"Susan covers the idea behind Solo Practice University, the mission, the faculty, the response so far and the likely opening date. It is a fascinating concept and Susan’s enthusiasm is very clear. The interview was recorded over a telephone and sound is not as good as I would have liked."

No warranties, as I haven't listened to it, but I bet it's fun and interesting going by earlier ones in the series. (I do not include my contributions in that assessment.)