The growth of technology is undoubtedly linked to the change in the nature of business assets, no longer are business assets purely tangible, writes Maria Peyman, senior associate, Birketts LLP.

For many businesses, and particularly those in the technology sector, assets are often intangible and often centred around intellectual property (IP) and ‘data’. However, where technology moves at pace legislation does not necessarily follow suit.

If the traditional legal structure for protecting IP is not meeting sector needs and legislation is not keeping apace of the developments by introducing new legislative measures, the termed ‘web of protection’ is vital and so is a brief exploration of what lies beyond the traditional frameworks for IP protection.

This is not advocating an abandonment of the usual avenues of registration of IP rights nor ceasing to maintain records to evidence unregistered IP rights.

That all remains a crucial part of strategic consideration. But, where registered IP rights might not be applicable or time is of the essence, to maximise protection then other effective tools, often overlooked in the context of traditional IP rights protection, by way of example are:

• Ensure that employee contracts contain effective restrictive covenants and that this is for all levels of employees who have access to/are involved with an organisation’s technological developments
• Use non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) before disclosing any information for collaborations. Both parties should be clear about the nature of the information being provided (i.e. is it confidential) and how it can or more importantly cannot be utilised
• Consider the technical measures which will enable you to take action against potential infringers, for example in CAD files consider placing a ‘seed’ to enable an organisation to ‘track back’ and identify who is facilitating the infringement 
• Internally to your organisation design encryption and limiting the number of people with access to the designs, as well as keeping them in secure facilities may be effective; and
• Block leaks of your confidential information. Leaks can occur as a result of unscrupulous employees, breaches of confidentiality by third parties following disclosure to them of information and through a breach of your cyber security.

As highlighted at the outset, data collected by technology linked companies is an asset, as demonstrated by the growth in the wearables sector and the surge in popularity of devices related to one’s health and fitness.

As well as comprising a business asset, personal data collected from the wearables is, sensitive personal data and must be handled with the highest standards. In contrast to the proceeding reference to the slow changes in IP legislation, this is an area which is seeing significant change in legislation in the coming year.

Data Protection

Organisations need to recognise that with collection comes responsibility and those which collect data from their customers/users must already comply with the Data Protection Regulations. 

However, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into effect in a year enhances the obligations on organisations which process customers’ data. Organisations will need to be appraised of the impact of the GDPR as a whole.

Is your organisation ready for the GDPR and has it considered the impact of the changes that are coming in, for example do you need to review the manner in which consent is obtained from the customers and are your R & D team factoring in the privacy by design and default implications?

Of course, intangible assets need more than an iron lock and key at the gate of your premises to protect them but with significant value need to be properly protected.

Where an organisation’s data and assets are held within a network a breach of security would give a third party unfettered access to everything. Security goes beyond just complying with legislatory obligations, each organisation needs to recognise the risks are posed to it. This will be dependent on its business and the nature of the assets held (including sensitive personal data which can be of considerable interest to third parties). 

Good cyber security measures are about the use of software and the use of an organisation’s people and here are examples of prudent steps.

The board should adopt a proactive approach to cyber security as well as an overall business commitment to teaching employee awareness. 

Software must be current, up to date and of sufficient security for the type of organisation question.

If what is in place will sufficiently protect the organisation from a legislator point of view going forward it will also help it manage its exposure in the event that there is a cyber incident in the future.

Educating and maintaining awareness in organisations’ employees and consultants is key. Each organisation should produce user security policies, establish a safe staff training programme, implement effective security awareness campaigns, maintain user awareness, promote incident reporting so that they can do so without fear of recrimination and make sure that you test the policies and training that you have in place.

A clear plan of what happens in the event of a cyber security incident is essential. 

In the age of fast moving technology thinking beyond the traditional can lead to alternative and effect methods of protecting intangible assets that arise from technology whilst recognising other assets, such as data, allows your organisation to plan for regulatory obligations.

• You can call Maria Peyman on 01223 326596 or email her at:
maria-peyman [at] birketts.co.uk 

Kirstie Sowter, a senior solicitor at Greenwoods LLP,  is one of a very small number of property guardianship legal experts in the UK. She gives us an insight into how the quickly expanding property guardianship business model could affect you and your company. 

Property guardianship is a fast-growing alternative housing model in the UK and across Europe which originates from the Netherlands. It involves private individuals protecting empty buildings through their occupation.
 
The guardianship model offers the building owner the security that comes with having someone occupy their property. The individual ‘guardian’ gets accommodation for comparatively low cost to the private rented sector. 

It’s a growing business model as it helps landlords secure empty buildings and deal with empty building rates while simultaneously helping to house those who may have been priced out of the market, especially in the City. 

How might it affect your company?
If your company suddenly finds itself with an empty building, property guardianship might appear on your radar as a viable option. A growing number of old commercial outlets are being filled with property guardians. 

How does it work?
Owners of empty properties may have plans for redevelopment or change of use of their building but, for whatever reason, may encounter a stopgap period before those works commence.

That property may be a prime target for squatting or copper theft amongst other things. Building owners can therefore engage the services of a property guardian provider (of which there are now many) to manage the property and enter into licences to occupy with individual property guardians. 

A licence to occupy (as opposed to an assured shorthold tenancy) suits short-term, temporary and flexible arrangements. Assuming the owner needs the building back (usually giving 31 days’ notice); the provider will then serve a notice to determine the licence on the property guardian giving them at least 28 days’ notice in accordance with the Protection from Eviction Act 1977. 

The future of property guardianship 
According to a survey carried out by the Empty Homes Network, 83 per cent of those taking part in the poll said that they wanted the Government to place more emphasis on using empty homes to help tackle the housing crisis rather than simply developing new builds. 

Until those empty homes are re-developed and the housing crisis is resolved, property guardianship will remain as a popular option for many individuals struggling to afford standard rents. 

It also remains a popular choice for business owners, with a number of established property guardianship companies now competing for those empty buildings and offering building owners attractive propositions.
 
The biggest industry issue at present is ensuring that the business model continues to work whilst ensuring that property guardians are protected. Property guardianship is currently somewhat of a hybrid in legal terms. As previously mentioned, it is not a tenancy and therefore the property guardian does not have the same rights as a tenant: exactly what rights the property guardians should have is currently not clear. 

We attended the Empty Homes Conference 2017 last month and heard from Rex Duis, founder of Property Guardians UK. He has been a property guardian for several years, occupying multiple properties and being managed by many of the lead providers. 

Whilst Mr Duis describes himself as a ‘property guardian activist’ he understands the commercial objectives of the providers but wants to ensure that standards in properties are raised and that property guardians have more privacy, security and transparency about their rights; he agrees that they do not fit in the tenant category.

Mr Duis has already drafted a 37-page ‘Property Guardianship Charter’ but we understand it is currently being updated and a new version is expected imminently. For now, watch this space – but we will, of course, keep you updated.

www.greenwoods.co.uk

Cambridge cyber security specialist Darktrace is closing in on a $1 billion valuation after another massive funding round.

Named Business Weekly’s Business of the Year in March, Darktrace has harvested $75 million from a Series D round, the company confirmed today. That takes its estimated private valuation to $825m with much more to come. The company was only founded in 2013.

The news raises the prospect of Darktrace becoming the fastest Cambridge company to attain unicorn status.

Darktrace confirms that the Series D round was led by Insight Venture Partners with backing from existing investors Summit Partners, KKR, and TenEleven Ventures.

Founded by Mike Lynch and launched by ex-Spooks from MI5 and MI6, Darktrace has already raised more than $180m. It is growing incredibly quickly as governments and companies across the globe wake up to one of the biggest threats the corporate world has ever faced.

The company said it would use the latest cash to underpin recruitment and expansion in Latin America and the Asia Pacific.

The machine learning technology, which has racked up 3,000 global deployments and counting, emanates from the University of Cambridge but has been considerably enhanced since. Darktrace’s Enterprise Immune System identifies cyber attacks in real time and repels them.

Such is the demand for its services that under dynamic CEO Nicole Eagan (pictured above) Darktrace has doubled headcount to 500 in the last year and now operates from 24 global offices, with Cambridge the HQ.

Contract value has soared 140 per cent in the last 12 months to more than $200m. Sales in the United States more than trebled in that time. 

ARM’s parent company SoftBank of Japan and Samsung Ventures are among international influencers that have invested in the business along its journey so far.

Cambridge Science Park company Worldpay, the UK’s largest electronic payment processing group, is in a takeover tug-of-war involving two American competitors.

Its shares have soared following separate approaches from US payment handler Vantiv and JPMorgan Chase bank, valuing the group at £10 billion-plus.

As the FT points out, the double whammy on Worldpay from the States comes just over a year after it was set to bid for a significant US rival.

Worldpay floated on the London Stock Exchange in 2015 and has scaled revenue and underlying profits in the past 12 months.

The fall in Sterling following the Brexit referendum has had European, Asian and American competitors swarming round the Worldpay honeypot. Worldpay processes 31 million mobile, online and in-store transactions every day.

Its UK share price opened today 19.70p (almost five per cent) higher at 427.70p sending its market cap soaring to $11.17bn.

The company is headed up by CEO Philip Jansen and operates in more than 40 countries. It pioneered online payments for SMEs.

The Cambridge office supports the company’s eCommerce business which includes: SME sales, eCommerce operations, delivery, technology and product development. It accommodates 300 people. The company is currently hiring for a number of positions in Cambridge.

Redgate Software spin-out Gearset – one of Cambridge’s fastest growing technology startups – has launched an aggressive recruitment campaign to exploit a multi-billion dollar global market.

Founded less than two years ago, Gearset has rapidly established itself as the market-leading release management solution for the Salesforce platform and is relied on by some of the most recognised companies in the world.

Clients include global names like Johnson & Johnson, Accenture, IBM and  TripAdvisor as well as globally influential locally based companies such as Arcus Global.

With a rapidly growing customer base, the company is looking to double in size by hiring marketing, sales and development roles at its Cambridge Business Park office in Redgate’s Newnham House building.

Gearset was launched in 2015 thanks to investment from Redgate and draws on the world-class alma mater’s extensive experience in the software sector. Gearset’s mission is to make deployment and collaboration on the Salesforce platform ingeniously simple and its unique focus on usability and quality has taken the market by storm.

The company employs eight people and is looking to expand out to 15 by the end of the year, with the promise of further growth in the near future. To put the market opportunity into perspective, Salesforce is growing at 30 per cent year-on-year and has revenue of over $8 billion.

Gearset is well on the way to becoming the de facto deployment tool for the millions of Salesforce developers and release managers around the world, and sees a huge potential for growth as it starts to tap into the potential of the market.

Gearset’s tool builds on the platform that Salesforce provides, so its market size is inherently linked to theirs. The market is huge and continues to grow rapidly.

CEO Kevin Boyle says: “We have massive potential to not only increase our market penetration over time but also grow as the market itself does. This is an incredibly exciting time for us. Our growth in the past two years has been phenomenal and we’re only just getting started.

“We’re looking for smart people to join our ambitious team and make an immediate impact on one of Cambridge’s fastest growing tech startups. We foster a collaborative culture that’s focused on encouraging you to get involved, from making key decisions that determine the direction of the product to supporting our customers on their journey to success. If you’re looking for a place to do great work, you’ve found it.”

Due to its rapid growth Gearset quickly became profitable so has no requirement for investment in the immediate future; its expansion is all organic.

• For current job opportunities at Gearset visit http://ift.tt/2tmfAdv or, as applications are now open, send your CV to jobs [at] gearset.com 

Cambridge-based Raspberry Pi has won the Royal Academy of Engineering’s MacRobert Award, recognised as the UK’s top engineering innovation accolade.

The triumphant team of engineers received a gold medal and a £50,000 prize at the Academy Awards Dinner, hosted yesterday evening at the Landmark London Hotel.  

The Raspberry Pi team was up against another Cambridge-based finalist, cyber security machine learning experts Darktrace, and London-based surface guided radiotherapy pioneers Vision RT for the coveted award. 

Renowned for identifying the ‘next big thing’, the annual MacRobert Award is presented to the engineers behind the UK engineering profession’s most exciting innovation.

Raspberry Pi’s tiny low-cost micro PC can be used as the control centre of almost anything, from video games to robots, multi-room sound systems, pet feeders, or scientific experiments. The ‘Pi’ has inspired a new generation of makers and brought computer programming into classrooms in a fun and engaging way.

Conceived as a way to boost computer science applications to the University of Cambridge, Raspberry Pi has created a whole new class of computer that has transformed the way engineers design control systems in industry. Before Raspberry Pi, each industry had its own suppliers of control computers, which in turn reduced competition and lowered quality. The robust and flexible Raspberry Pi has swept this market away and over half of Raspberry Pis are now sold to industry. 

The MacRobert Award has recognised many technologies that have since become ubiquitous, such as the catalytic convertor and the CT scanner, whose inventor Sir Godfrey Hounsfield won the MacRobert Award in 1972, seven years before he received the Nobel Prize. 

Cambridge has a history of success in this competition during the last decade. Microsoft Research won the MacRobert in 2011, RealVNC followed suit in 2013 and there have been Cambridge-based finalists in six of the last ten years.

MacRobert Award Judge Dr Frances Saunders CB FREng said: “The Raspberry Pi team has achieved something that mainstream multinational computer companies and leading processing chip designers not only failed to do, but failed even to spot a need for. 

“With a team of engineers numbering in the tens, not hundreds or thousands, Raspberry Pi has redefined home computing for many thousands of people across the world, even taking 1% of the global PC market. Their refusal to compromise on quality, price point or functionality has resulted in a highly innovative design that has taken the education and maker market by storm, and they have created a world-beating business in the process.” 

From initially setting out to help increase the number of computer science applicants to the University of Cambridge, the Raspberry Pi team has put the power of computing into the hands of people all over the world. 

By doing so, they are helping to ensure future generations are capable of understanding and shaping our increasingly digital world, able to solve the problems that matter to them, and equipped for the jobs of the future.

Around the turn of the millennium, university computer science courses began to see a dramatic decrease in the number of applicants. This is thought to be linked to the demise of programmable home computers like the BBC Micro and Spectrum ZX. 

As personal computers and games consoles became more complex, fewer young people felt able to access the ‘back room’ workings of computers, reducing the number of hobbyists. At the same time, computer programming was not widely taught in schools. 

Raspberry Pi is tackling these problems by firing kids’ imaginations about computing with an easy-to-use, powerful and robust programmable computer, at a price-point that makes it accessible to schools: just $35 (£28) for the flagship product, or an even smaller version, the Raspberry Pi Zero, at $5 (£4).

Since the first Raspberry Pi was launched in 2012, the organisation has gone on to sell 14 million to makers, schools, and increasingly to industry. 

The industry demand stems from the reliability of the design; only five in every million Raspberry Pis experience failures (the typical industry rate is 1 in 1000) thanks to its partnership with Sony, which manufactures them in Wales more cost effectively and to higher standards than overseas. 

Raspberry Pi is a not for profit organisation. The success achieved by the commercial arm – Raspberry Pi Trading – generates millions in profits that are then used by the charitable Raspberry Pi Foundation to help teach people about computing. 

Through initiatives such as Code Club, Raspberry Pi helps 85,000 UK children in 5,750 weekly Code Clubs learn the basics of coding. This reach is not limited to the UK; there are 4,500 Code Clubs outside of the 
country, teaching basic computing skills in 27 languages through 1,084 Raspberry Pi Certified Educators. 

Dr Dame Sue Ion DBE FREng FRS, Chair of the MacRobert Award judging panel, said: “All three of this year’s finalists demonstrate exceptional engineering, but what sets Raspberry Pi apart is the sheer quality of the innovation, which has allowed the computer to be used far beyond its original purpose. 

“By blending old and new technology with innovative systems engineering and circuit board design, the team has created a computer that is cheap, robust, small and flexible. It is manufactured in the UK cheaper and at higher quality than elsewhere. Raspberry Pi’s original educational goal has actually resulted in a computer control system that can influence many different industries. 

“Raspberry Pi has also inspired multiple generations to get into coding: children are learning about coding for the first time, often alongside their parents and grandparents. Communities in the developing world are being empowered by the Raspberry Pi and its modern day computing-on-a-budget.” 

The winning team members are: Dr Eben Upton CBE, CEO; James Adams, COO; Pete Lomas, Director of Engineering, Norcott Technologies; Dom Cobley, Senior Principal Software Engineer; Gordon Hollingworth, Director of Engineering; Liz Upton, Director of Communications. 

• PHOTOGRAPH SHOWS: Raspberry Pi CEO, Eben Upton

Cambridge life science business Innova Biosciences has been acquired by German-headquartered SYGNIS AG for €8 million in cash and €3.5m in shares. Innova CEO and CSO Dr Nick Gee becomes chief technical officer of SYGNIS, which has bases in Europe, the US and Asia.

The UK company is a specialist provider of bioconjugation products and services. Its range of antibody and protein labelling products and services is said to complement SYGNIS’ customer base and existing genomics and proteomics portfolio. SYGNIS’ international presence provides Innova Biosciences with the opportunity to expand even further within its already fast growing markets.

Dr. Heikki Lanckriet, CEO and CSO of SYGNIS, said: “Innova is a natural fit with the SYGNIS Group. Its cutting-edge labelling technology, market knowledge, innovation and creativity is highly complementary and will add significant value to the SYGNIS Group and its customers.

“Labelling is a central application at several stages in both proteomics and genomics workflow hence the Innova product portfolio fits perfectly with our customer base.”

Nick Gee (pictured) added: “SYGNIS offers a great platform to grow our business internationally and will give us access to new target audiences and markets.

“SYGNIS and Innova technologies are highly complementary, and can be sold through the same sales channels.

“We were particularly attracted by the sales reach of SYGNIS, which will enable us to grow our business even more quickly. The proximity of our locations here in Cambridge also makes achieving synergies readily attainable.”

With the 2016 acquisition of Expedeon Holdings in the UK, SYGNIS added a complementary proteomics product portfolio. Resulting from this significant expansion, SYGNIS’ product portfolio now covers the entire workflow of molecular biology.

SYGNIS also acquired the profitable US-based life sciences tools company C.B.S. Scientific in December 2016 to further expand its product offering. SYGNIS products are sold through a direct sales force and several distribution partners in Europe, the US and Asia. SYGNIS AG has offices in Germany, Spain and the UK, production sites in the UK and the US as well as sales offices in Asia. 

We certainly try! Carter Jonas has recently been on the hunt for new office space in a location and format that suits our professional service teams, which work across the commercial, rural, and planning and development sectors.

Office availability in Cambridge is at the lowest level it has been in recent years so it is just as well we are experts in this field.

When advising our clients, we follow a specific process to ensure that all our recommendations reflect the business and its employee’s requirements. Factors we review include current location, the type of business, speed of growth and what style of working suits the company.

We wouldn’t suggest that a broking firm adopts an agile working format as it would be an unfitting way for that sector to operate, similarly we wouldn’t recommend that a creative agency implements individual offices for all employees.

However, these are all considerations any business should make before deciding on a new location and office style.

As we have all seen, over the last few years, office layout and fit outs have changed dramatically and modern working practices are now adopted across a variety of sectors.

These formats include the very creative ‘Google styled’ offices with their slides, fake grass, and indoor soundproof office phone booths, as well as the more reserved agile working systems implemented by the more traditional businesses.

Many companies now require staff to hot desk around the office. Often this is because they aren’t all there at the same time and it means the business can lease a smaller space, saving on overheads.

However, it also provides the opportunity to reduce the desk numbers but include additional break-out areas for collaborative working or added facilities, such as a café, that might help them attract and retain talent. It is amazing how much draw food and drink can provide!

So do we follow the advice that we give our clients when looking to find a suitable office space for ourselves? Our team has rapidly expanded over the last five years, to the point where we needed to find larger accommodation to house our professional service teams, but also factor in space for our continued growth.

For us, adopting agile working makes sense. As surveyors and planners, we are always out and about seeing clients, viewing properties and attending industry events during the week, meaning that we can quite legitimately hot desk without too much issue.

We knew that we needed to stay in town for our clients but also our employees. Our industry is incredibly sociable and, unsurprisingly, so are the individuals that work for us.

Positioning our office in a vibrant location that offers opportunities for them to socialise after work, we knew, would only help us draw more talent and encourage our clients to visit us.

CB1 has provided us this opportunity, moving from quite a traditional office setting to exciting surroundings with a raft of shops and restaurants on our doorstep.

We are based in One Station Square, the newly developed building on Station Road, which provides a mixture of new, high-specification, modern office accommodation.

The open plan space encourages increased collaboration and interaction between our teams and, as a national agency with our head office in London, being next to Cambridge Station provides vital links for our employees to work from either location.

There is no denying the calibre of this office, which is complimented by the occupiers that have either already moved in or will do in the coming months. Deloitte and Amazon are two such occupiers, the latter of which has taken 60,000 sq ft. There is currently a considerable lack of available modern office space in Cambridge.

We knew this type of office was what the business needed and therefore we signed our lease before One Station Square was even completed.

Has it been an easy process? Not really! But because of our contacts and market knowledge we had the insight to find an office that serves to deliver us the type of space that our company needs and will continue to for many years from now.

We might be the experts but we definitely prefer it when the shoe is on the other foot!

http://ift.tt/2tXq8iq

Japanese owned Heptares Therapeutics is relocating to the Cambridge life science cluster from its current base in Welwyn.

Owned by Sosei Corporation, Heptares is creating a state-of-the-art R & D facility at Granta Park to support an international growth strategy. It will be extensively remodelling the facility being vacated by US company Gilead Sciences Inc which is expanding into a new £28 million research hub at Granta.

The 35,000 sq ft building Heptares is taking will house the company’s entire UK R & D team, with growth of its Zurich operation continuing uninterrupted. Heptares plans to move to the new facility in the second half of 2018, by which time it expects to employ over 130 highly skilled staff drawn from around the world, focused on discovery and clinical development of novel small molecules and biologics derived from its unique GPCR-focused structure-based drug design platform.

The relocation follows Heptares’ rapid expansion in recent years and is intended to support the company’s plans for progressing to market its own products derived from its G protein-coupled receptor drug discovery and development activities, as well as to continue advancing its broad pipeline of projects partnered with leading pharmaceutical companies.

Malcolm Weir, CEO of Heptares and chief R & D officer of Sosei Group said: “In relocating to Granta Park, Heptares is building a world-leading centre for the design and development of novel medicines targeting GPCRs – the most important family of drug targets in the pharmaceutical industry and the source of more than 40 per cent of approved drugs. 

“We have built an exceptional and truly international team in the UK, which has been crucial for our success to date. We anticipate that with enhanced links to the first-class research environment of Cambridge, whilst still maintaining links to the equivalent biomedical centres of excellence in London and Oxford, we can reinforce our world-leading position.”

Peter Bains, CEO of Sosei, added: “We are delighted with the very strong progress Heptares has made since it was acquired by Sosei in 2015. At that time, we stated our commitment to establishing Heptares as our core drug discovery and development engine to fuel our organic growth and partnering strategies. 

“We are proud to fulfil this commitment through continued investment in Heptares and in this exciting move to state-of-the art facilities in Cambridge.”

Heptares’ new facility will be named The Steinmetz Building as a tribute to Michael Steinmetz, who died in 2016. Through US venture capital firm Clarus Ventures, Michael was a crucial early investor in Heptares and made a significant contribution to the development and success of the company in his role as a board director between 2007 and 2015.

Heptares now has partnerships for its novel candidates and technologies with leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, including Allergan, AstraZeneca, Daiichi Sankyo, Kymab, MedImmune, MorphoSys, Pfizer and Teva.

Its relocation to Granta Park from the BioPark in Welwyn also caps a brilliant couple of years for BioMed Realty, Granta’s US owner and developer, following multimillion investment in flagship facilities announced by Illumina and Gilead. Illumina is investing up to £60m in a facility capable of housing 500 staff.

• PHOTOGRAPH SHOWS: Heptares CEO, Malcolm Weir