Global Entrepreneurship Week, 12-18 November 2012
Launched in the UK as Enterprise Week in 2004, Global Entrepreneurship Week has reached millions of people, inspiring them about the potential of entrepreneurship. The week has shown that entrepreneurship is a force for good: that it can lift people out of poverty, enable people to take control of their own lives, or simply turn their passions into profit.
Since its inception, Global Entrepreneurship Week has spread to 115 countries, with nearly 24,000 organisations planning more than 37,000 activities. As part of Global Entrepreneurship Week 2011 in the UK, over 213,000 people attended 2,305 events, run by over 900 organisations.
For 2012 the UK theme is ‘pass it on’, encouraging successful entrepreneurs and enterprise organisations to pass on their expertise, knowledge and experiences to start-ups - catalysing successful enterprises UK wide.
The goal is to create a collaborative, local and practical week which enables people to learn more about the wealth of support that is available to entrepreneurs in the UK.
Through the week, the aim is to:
- Encourage those people who are not yet entrepreneurs to think about starting up their own business
- Improve entrepreneurship skills for aspiring entrepreneurs and start-ups
- Help people to access practical support - locally, regionally and nationally
This will be done by passing on: skills, contacts, knowledge, confidence and resources.
Last year over 900 partner organisations got involved in the week here in the UK, reaching 213,000 people through 2,305 activities. This year the campaign promises to be even better.
If you’re thinking about starting a business, or are in the early stages of running a business, then make sure you attend an event which can help you with your entrepreneurial journey.
Throughout the week there will be GEW related events happening across the UK which the IPO will be attending. These FREE events include:
- Feature seminars & guest speakers on all areas of IP
- Offer FREE advice and IP guides to take away with you.
- Provide the opportunity to network with fellow entrepreneurs
Take a look at our GEW events page and see when we will be in your area.
We are proud to announce that for the second year in a row the IPO's
Buisness Outreach and
Education Team has been awarded the "High Impact Badge of Honour" for
the Cracking Ideas 
educational resource and its work encouraging entrepreneurship
and
innovation.
This Badge is a sign of how well the event met the strict targets set out by GEW for more information on these targets see the GEW website.
The Cracking Ideas event included: Creative challenges, Games, Innovative activities.
Interested in learning more about IP?
A patent protects new inventions and covers how things work, what they do, how they do it, what they are made of and how they are made.
It gives the owner the right to prevent others from making, using, importing or selling the invention without permission.
These are signs which can distinguish your goods and services from those of your competitors. It can be words, logos or a combination of both.
You can use your trade mark as a marketing tool so that customers can recognise your products or services.
A registered design is a legal right which protects the overall visual appearance of a product in the geographical area you register it.
The appearance of your product may result from a combination of shapes, colours and materials.
Copyright relates to books, magazines, songs, instruction manuals, websites and other similar materials.
Copyright does not protect ideas for a work. It is only when the work itself is fixed, for example in writing, that copyright automatically protects it.
Whether you're into rocket launching science, lunar landscape art, deep space design or galactic gizmo technology this year's Cracking Ideas space competition is just for you. We need your super-sonic, space age Cracking Ideas rocketing their way to us. So ... go on ... go galactic ... get cracking!!
The competition is based around the four areas of IP (patents, trade marks, designs and copyright) and is open to children aged 4 - 16 years of age. There are 3 age categories (4 - 7, 8 - 11 and 12 - 16) and four regions England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The competition can be entered individually or in teams through clubs or school.
The competition closes 30 April 2013 so there is still loads of time left to enter.
We have created a nifty, FREE, online tool that will guide you through the process of identifying your businesses IP and offers you advice on what you should do next.
The IP Healthcheck tool which covers patents, trade marks, designs, copyright, licensing & confidentiality agreements is:
- Quick (around 10 mins)
- Simple to use
- Confidential
Take a look at it now and get your own FREE IP Healthcheck report, helping you make sure your business is IP aware and better placed to exploit your ideas commercially.