Winning IP clinic will help entrepreneurs and law students alike

Senior law lecturer Joe Sekhon of Portsmouth Business School has won £30,000 to set up an IP clinic for students to gain free advice from law students.

The project was one of just 13 to receive funding from the Intellectual Property Office's (IPO) "Fast Forward Competition", which has provided £750,000 for projects that improve the management of IP and knowledge exchange.

The new Intellectual Property Advice and Support Service (iPass) will allow students and graduates starting their own companies to access advice on how best to protect and commercialise their invention, idea or intellectual property. Law students can volunteer to become "iPass champions" , and the clinic will initially operate with around 10 students.

Sekhon, who predicts that the United Kingdom may well be entering a golden age for students and graduates wishing to start their own businesses, said: "I am thrilled to have won funding from the IPO. This funding will provide the University of Portsmouth's growing student entrepreneur community with the very best in advice and guidance on how to utilise the UK's intellectual property laws to potentially transform their start-ups into the high-growth, job creating ventures of tomorrow."

Further, to celebrate the fact that today is World IP Day (26 April), check out our friends at The IP Media Group; if intellectual property is your thing, they offer a superb resource.