Member Blog

Has the New Year heralded the start of a new career for you? However experienced you are, the first few weeks in a new job can be just as intimidating as they are exciting. We’ve compiled some of the top tips our recruitment consultants regularly share as part of their ongoing support for our candidates, even after they’ve found them a new role.

1. Build respect

Build respect and trust by looking for ways to help out and take an interest in what other people are doing. Try to pick up on your new colleague’s working styles and adapt your approach to meet their needs. If you are a manager, take time to get to know your team as well as other senior colleagues. Building relationships will enable you to nurture a strong team spirit and establish yourself as a supportive leader from day one.

2. Understand the new culture

Use your first few weeks to absorb what goes on around you in order to understand the organisation’s culture and values, and how it engages with its customers, employees and the local community. In many instances the culture will stem from an organisation’s origins. Read up on its history as well as any current mission statements, business plans and company handbooks. Also, look at how new ideas are developed and implemented, and understand who the key decision makers are.

3. Get to grips with your job description

A written job description is only one element in fully understanding your responsibilities. It’s also important to establish people’s expectations of you, and for you to discover the structure and skills available within your team to help you meet these expectations. Although you will be expected to deliver results eventually, be patient and don’t rush with ambitious goals. Spend time developing your knowledge of the organisation’s industry, its customers, competitors, products, services and people. When you have absorbed the necessary information, you will be in a stronger position to really start performing at your best.

4. Build a rapport with the boss

Request meetings with your boss on a consistent basis to review your performance, and also to establish a rapport. If they haven’t provided you with a list of expectations for your probationary period, take proactive action. Either ask your manager to write some goals and objectives for you, or write them yourself and ask for them to be approved. Make sure you schedule in an informal review of your performance halfway through the probationary period, so you can put yourself back on course if things are going wrong.

5. Find a mentor

As you get introduced to senior staff, look for those who convey reliability, confidence and initiative, and who could act as a mentor for you. Mentoring has numerous benefits, from having an experienced, knowledgeable person to bounce ideas off, through to someone who actively helps direct and advance your career within the organisation.

Nestlé fails in its battle to protect the shape of its KitKat bar as a trademark, after High Court of England and Wales rules that the chocolate bar has failed to acquire distinctiveness through use. Novagraaf’s Claire Jones outlines the implications for brand owners.

Obtaining trademark protection of shapes is not as common or as simple as trademark protection for other types of signs, such as words, slogans or logos.

Registration limitations exclude shapes from trademark protection, if:

• they consist of a shape which results from the nature of the goods themselves;
• the shape gives substantial value to the goods; or
• if the shape of goods is necessary to obtain a technical result.

Shapes that are not excluded on these grounds can obtain trademark protection, but – as with trademarks in general – only if they satisfy criteria for distinctiveness. In practice, this is quite a hurdle as it can be difficult to argue that consumers recognise a shape as a distinguishing mark of a particular undertaking. Ideally, shapes need to depart significantly from the norm or customs of the sector in order to fulfil the essential function of a trademark of indicating a product’s origin.

Why KitKat’s four-finger shape falls short In 2010, Nestlé filed an application to register a trademark for its four fingered KitKat bar. As the application was for a shape mark, the (word) mark KitKat was not included in the application.

The UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) originally accepted the application and registered the shape mark; however, competitor Cadbury’s opposed the registration. In the procedure that followed, the High Court of Justice of England and Wales referred the following questions to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for a preliminary ruling.

In essence, the procedure concerned the following questions:

• Is the shape of the KitKat bar excluded from trademark protection because one of the grounds for refusal is applicable? And, if the answer to that question is negative;
• Has the shape acquired a distinctive character through use?

Applying the grounds for refusal With respect to the first question, the CJEU heard arguments that the chocolate bar’s shape contained three essential features: one of which results from the nature of the goods themselves and two of which are necessary to obtain a technical result.

The court discussed that it is possible for the essential features of a sign to be covered by one or more grounds of refusal. It then went on to clarify that the grounds of refusal regarding the technical result must be interpreted as referring only to the manner in which the goods at issue function and not the manner in which they are manufactured. The court also clarified that registration may be refused only where at least one of those grounds is fully applicable to the sign at issue. The case was then returned to the UK courts for review.

A final refusal by the High Court of England and Wales Guided by the CJEU’s opinion, Mr Justice Arnold concluded that: “In order to demonstrate that a sign has acquired distinctive character, the applicant or trademark proprietor must prove that, at the relevant date, a significant proportion of the relevant class of persons perceives the relevant goods or services as originating from a particular undertaking because of the sign in question (as opposed to any other trademark which may also be present).” (para 57)

In other words, to prove acquired distinctiveness, Nestlé must show that the relevant public recognises the shape in itself as originating from Nestlé. However, Mr Justice Arnold ruled that was only able to establish association, which was not sufficient to demonstrate the necessary acquisition of distinctive character. The shape was, therefore, deemed ineligible for registration and the appeal was dismissed.

Implications for trademark holders In effect, there was substantial evidence presented in the proceedings to show that consumers associated the shape of the bar with the KitKat brand, but not that consumers already relied upon that shape before purchase. Therefore, the main evidence point to come out of the proceedings is that the evidence must show that consumers perceive the trademark as indicating exclusive origin from one particular undertaking. However, the application of such a test was not made entirely clear by Mr Justice Arnold, and this point is likely to be contended in the future.

The bar for acquired distinctiveness of shapes has been set very high and consumers will be foremost in any analysis.

Claire Jones is a trademark attorney in the London offices of Novagraaf.

The new year is a good time to step back and assess whether the IP rights in your portfolio are adding value to your business, but where should you begin?

Many companies estimate the healthiness and relative worth of their IP portfolios based on size alone. However, those IP rights could be worth far less than hoped if the following checks and balances aren’t also considered. IP portfolios are frequently cluttered with unused registrations or starved by gaps in coverage; reviewing your IP now via a detailed audit could help you to identify ways to streamline your portfolio in 2016, saving you money while also improving the efficiency of your assets.

Step 1: Review your IP records and data for accuracy The data in your IP portfolio needs to be accurate and up-to-date, otherwise you may find that you don’t quite own the rights that you think you do. Taking the time now to cleanse, update and rationalise your IP data can save you both time and money in the long-run, as it will identify errors in the records, as well as unnecessary costs such as duplicate registrations (e.g between national and CTM rights).

Centralising IP ownership can also help you to avoid unnecessary costs and risks, e.g. due to refusals or duplicate records. This also enables companies to file oppositions or to act against infringement on behalf of one formal party, instead of being forced to initiate double procedures in case of decentralised ownership.

Step 2: Audit your IP portfolio for value A regular IP audit enables you to assess the value of your portfolio against the costs involved in growing and maintaining the IP rights it contains. It helps to identify, for example, trademark rights that are being renewed despite never being used, as well as gaps in protection, which might leave a company exposed. To undertake this audit, we would first recommend:

• Reviewing your IP strategy to ensure that it takes into account your strategic business goals;
• Prioritising your IP rights (e.g. between ‘core’ and ‘non-core’), and markets (countries and goods/services) based on current branding/R&D strategy and future plans;
• Auditing licensing and royalty agreements to ensure that the rights have been correctly maintained and the revenues received; and
• Reviewing your supplier list to see if it is possible to generate further cost savings by consolidating your IP portfolio with one provider.

Step 3: Conduct regular healthchecks Completing an IP audit is only the first step in what should be a regular programme of portfolio reviews. By conducting audits at regular intervals (ideally at least every six months), you can ensure that your portfolio continues to evolve as your business does, and it could also identify additional savings in the future; for example, by:

• Merging registrations;
• Allowing possible duplicate (local) registrations to lapse; and
• Identifying unexploited rights that could be sold, licensed or allowed to lapse.

Find out more Novagraaf regularly undertakes IP audits for customers, helping them to assess the efficiency of their rights, to identify gaps in coverage and to highlight areas where they could save costs. You can find out more about this service and our methodology on our website.

Yes you read correctly. Don’t promote your developers. They deserve to stay where they are.

Having worked for a number of companies who believe the only way to show their appreciation for hard working developers is to give them more responsibility, I am a firm believer in doing the exact opposite. Companies move successful developers into other areas of their business, often into people management, and take away what makes the developer good at their job, or at the very least dilute their skills by asking them to focus on people rather than code. But there’s a reason your developer is good at what they do. Most developers are not ‘people people’, they are software people and for very good reasons.

If the software development team is writing the core product or system the business is using day-to-day, moving those developers away from developing will have a significant impact on productivity and quality. Even promoting a developer to an architect, for the purposes of paying them more, is often wrong. Software architects are not the same as building architects, they still need to code and code regularly. Obviously there are exceptions to the rule and a developer may want to make a career change. If they want to move to something very different, let them. If they want more responsibility, make it over the design and or make them the team or project technical lead, but make sure someone else does the people management of the team.

Perhaps some companies feel the need to justify the pay rise on offer, giving the developer more diverse responsibilities in order to do so, but why would you move someone from a job they excel at into a job they’ll struggle with just to pay them more money? Tech firms need to understand that their software developers are at least as important as their people managers, if not more so, and recognise the importance of technical excellence. The solution as a business owner is to keep talking to your developers, make sure they’re doing what is best for them, and your business, and regularly increase their pay in line with everyone else in the company. A good developer is a valuable asset, so reward them by letting them shine in their role. Listen to what they have to say and let them manage code, not people.

Ideas: Paul Grenyer Words: Lauren Gwynn

Help young people kick-start their careers with Future You – a free careers app for 13-21 year olds in Norfolk. Using skills, aptitudes and qualifications, Future You can help young people identify their ideal careers in one of Norfolk’s six leading growth sectors.

Future You is a completely free careers guidance app, developed for young people, by young people. The app is available for both Apple phone users and Android and there is also an online web tool.

The app is designed to help young people recognise the wealth of career opportunities available to them right on their doorstep in Norfolk. Norfolk has six leading growth sectors which provide a vast range of career prospects.

We have identified the six leading growth areas as follows:

• Energy
• Engineering
• Life sciences
• Creative industries
• Financial Services
• Health and social care

The app takes interests, skills and aptitudes and provides link to advice and support on what different jobs are available within each growth sector, it identifies the career pathways that are available and what steps to take. There is also support in creating the perfect CV, preparing for an interview as well as highlighting the latest apprenticeships and traineeships available to them and much more.

Future You is supported by six partner companies who, with the help of their employees, brought the Future You campaign to life. Those companies are:

• Marsh UK
• Institute of Food Research
• Norse Care
• Perenco Ltd
• osbornenash
• Dodman Limited

If your company falls within one of these six growth Sectors we are here to help

We are always looking for more local businesses who represent the 6 key growth areas to support and work with us to help promote Future You to future generations of talent in Norfolk.

If you would like any further information about the Future You app and how to get involved then we would love to hear from you. Please email the communications team atmarketing@norfolk.gov.uk

For more information on Future You, including how to download the app as well as the six case studies featured within the Future You campaign visit www.futureyounorfolk.com

Future you is also on twitter – follow @Norfolk_FY for app support and feedback, tips and advice as well as highlighting current vacancies and how to make the most of Future You. We are always looking for ways in which we can improve Future You and your feedback is greatly appreciated to help make Future You a better experience for everyone.

The Future You team will be at the Norfolk Skills and Careers Festival to connect first hand with the future generation of talent in Norfolk and help demonstrate the Future You app and the support it can offer.

We have produced a member list database for managing member information.

Features:

• Templated email messages for easy send of similar information.
• Custom fields of varying types.
• Selection by attribute AND individual name. This means that one can select an attribute of committee which sends to those with that specific attribute attached.
• Reporting on full information or simple list

Planned Features

• Scheduled emails​
• More comprehensive reporting
• Billing ability if required.
• Heirarchical display of audited outbound contact
• Inbound contact management

If any thing here sounds interesting, or you wish to know more please contact me using my email address and I shall be most forthcoming.

All.

David A. Robertson

Have you ever sighed at the thought of ringing your bank, or a utility provider? Is this because experience tells you that you’ll be asked to press 1 for that department, then 2 for the next, then another to describe your reason for calling, then you’re asked to enter your account details and pass a security check before you actually speak to a human being? Then often are told you haven’t reached the team you need and need to be transferred? Does that feel great – particularly as the number you’ve rung is called Customer Service and it can feel anything but.

As someone who relishes good customer service, like most of us I am sure, I want to speak to someone that understands, can give advice or rectify any issue we have in the least amount of time. We want the ‘Perfect Customer Experience’.

However, we all know in the real world this doesn’t always happen but I am still happy if the person I speak to at least gives it a try and promises to call me back if they need to look into my issue further.

A recent survey said that only 26% of consumers responded positively when asked if they believe customer service centres provide great support, compared to 49% who did not. This clearly shows how the industry is missing the mark in relation to customer expectations.

In 2011 80% of consumers said they prefer talking to an advisor on the phone, but times have changed – consumers now want to be able to research for themselves and take control of the conversation – including the ability to communicate in multiple ways, including e-mail, live chat, or ‘click to call’ support from a website.

So while I believe that it is still extremely important to maintain a strong phone presence, it is equally important to demonstrate that you have consistency of response quality across other multi-media channels, including social media platforms.

Customer satisfaction is finally climbing up the priority list and, in my opinion, is the most important factor of a successful business. These changes are indicative that consumer demands are driving the shift in metrics.

Here at Credo Asset Finance, we have always been striving for the ‘Perfect Customer Experience’ and we invite customers to go to our ‘Meet the Team’ page so they can see who they are dealing with. Clicking onto individual profiles outline their specialism and their contact details and helps potential customers find the right person they want quickly and simply. Our web analytics show this is one of our most viewed pages, so we know we’re right to invest in this page – have a look at ithere!

We are also available on e-mail, live chat and social media platforms, giving people choice on how to contact us. We have invested in our YouTube channel too and created some useful videos to help with all the finance jargon, take a look at it here!For free, true advice about your Asset Finance needs remember you can always call too! We love to chat!

And we also love to learn! What’s your secret of great customer service in your business?

17 December 2015

Owning your business premises could help you build a bigger pension fund.

Indisputably, pensions have a powerful tax advantage, but if you’re a director or owner of a small business, the company’s assets could help you generate a bigger pension fund faster.

The boost is achieved by holding your business premises within a pension wrapper. Once those premises (including any commercial or agricultural land) are ‘owned’ by the pension, they can be leased back to the business and, significantly, rent paid by the business can go directly into your pension pot.

The tax breaks mean that business owners can build their retirement nest eggs quicker, especially if tax-relievable contributions are made from income.

Building on success

The commercial property market has been performing well over the past few years, owing to improving economic conditions and low interest rates.

Of course, good performance shouldn’t be seen as a guide to the future, since there will be years when property falls in value.

Putting capital gains to one side, however, it may be that the decision to move property into a pension wrapper is validated by the combination of tax benefits and new pension freedoms; these include the availability of uncapped income from age 55 and the possibility of mitigating death taxes altogether.

Safety warning

Only a self-invested personal pension (SIPP) and a small self-administered scheme (SSAS) can hold commercial property. Many business owners will not have sufficient funds to purchase their premises outright, so they can face the challenge of borrowing money to acquire the property. The rules allow investors to borrow up to 50% of the value of their pension pot to fund the purchase.

Once everything is established, there’s also the task of making sure that rental income is invested appropriately.

Remember also that property tends to be illiquid when compared to other investments. It could take months, or even years, to sell the premises at the right price – the market might be down at just the moment you want to sell.

These are just some of the reasons that directors and owners of small businesses should seek advice from a specialist before taking action.

Height restriction

One increasing challenge is the introduction of a reduced lifetime allowance of £1 million in April 2016.

To receive a complimentary guide covering wealth management, retirement planning or Inheritance Tax planning, contact Martin Vincent on 07725 971543 or email martin.vincent@sjpp.co.uk

The levels and bases of taxation, and reliefs from taxation, can change at any time. The value of any tax relief depends on individual circumstances.

Tudor Lodge are delighted to announce a partnership with Xexec, the leading employees discount and staff benefits solution in the UK. Featured in the Tech Track 100 for 3 years (2012, 2013 and 2015),the London-based company gives large and medium size enterprises a solution tokeeping staff motivated.

Creating an online portal for each company, employees have their personal login and gain access to thousands of specific discounts and offers from all over the country. With clients such as 02 and BUPA, employees stay motivated by having access to discountedholidays, theatre tickets, music concerts and everyday household items.

How we are working together

Xexec are not ranking on Google for any of their key search terms such as employee discounts, staff recognition or employee engagement – which is why they came to Tudor Lodge Consultants!

Together, we have devised a strategy to attract B2B customers, optimising every aspect of the website including content, meta data, headings, images and more. It is important thatall the relevant information is available on the website so Google can understand what Xexec offer and rank them accordingly.

In addition to this, we have been working hard on their PPC (pay-per-click) campaign on Google so that we can test out hundreds of keywords and get an idea of what search terms are best and where we should focus our resources.

The Christmas period is a particularly busy time as employers are always looking to motivate staff around the holiday season, other than a Christmas bonus and a party at the end of the year. Staff will respond well to discounts on items and events that they can share with their loved ones, so it is crucial that we can boost their ranking in time.

Next Steps

As we plan the next 6 months for the Xexec website, we are planning to enhance the user experienceby creating a mobile-friendly website and adding more images and videos to create a more visual experience. We are working hard at getting PR for the company as more mentions and links on external sites will make the website seem more relevant in Google’s eyes and lead to higher rankings in the search results.

Máte telefónne tlmočnícke služby?*

Unless you speak Slovak you probably don’t know what that means. As a translation and interpretation agency, Integro Languages’ response is our telephone interpreting service On Call. Data from the UK Census shows that many British residents do not speak English as their first language. With no shared language, communication becomes very difficult.

Within their figures, an estimated one million residents struggle to communicate in English.

According to Norfolk Insight, between 2003 and 2014, Norfolk gained around 29,300 residents from net long-term international migration. The current number of non-British people living Norfolk in 2015 hovers around 46,000. Over the past five years, the highest numbers of National Insurance Number registrations for Norfolk are to nationals of Lithuania, Poland and Portugal.

Considering these facts, it seems like a smart decision for Norfolk-based businesses to cater to limited English-speaking residents. Language skills are needed by local authorities, doctors, the police, legal organisations, insurance companies… Be it a Mexican who does not understand a landlord’s housing contract, or an insurance company that needs to interpret for a Lithuanian whose car has been scratched. Many professional bodies and individuals are lacking the language skills to communicate their needs effectively.

If you are a business based in Norfolk and receive a call from a customer with limited spoken English skills, how do you react? Integro Languages is here to fill the language skills gap.

Our On Call service connects users with 5,500 linguists worldwide, allowing them to communicate in over 150 languages, around the clock. When a call is received, the operator connects you with an interpreter, thus starting a three way call between the caller, interpreter and the limited English speaker. Taking an average of just 14 seconds for an operator to connect you to a Spanish operator, and less than 60 seconds for Indonesian, we provide a fast and reliable service.

*Oh, by the way-it means “do you have a telephone interpretation service?” Luckily for you, we do.

Statistics published at the end of October 2015 by the European Commission (EC) show a continued increase in the number of shipments suspected of violating IP rights. In its ‘Report on EU customs enforcement of IPR‘, the EC identified internet shopping as a major source of counterfeit goods in the EU in the previous year. Cigarettes were at the top of the list of detained articles, followed by toys and medicines, and electrical household goods.

The EC’s latest report shows that customs authorities detained 35.5 million individual items of fake or counterfeit goods in 2014, with an overall total value of more than €617 million. According to its findings, the increase in detentions can be linked to the large amount of small parcels in express and postal traffic due to the rise of internet sales. The report also points to “the pivotal role of EU customs administrations in the fight against counterfeit goods” (click here for more information on how to work with customs to identify and seize infringing goods).

All types of products are at risk Counterfeiting affects a broad a variety of goods; from t-shirts to handbags, machinery and automotive parts, toys, batteries, pharmaceuticals, perfumes and electrical goods. As a general rule, if a company has a product or a brand that is popular and in demand, then it’s likely that it is or will become a target for counterfeiters.

In its analysis, the EC found that cigarettes were the most counterfeited goods in 2014 (35% of articles detained), followed by everyday products “which are potentially dangerous to the health and safety of consumers”, such as food and beverages, toiletries, medicines, toys and household electrical goods (collectively 28.6% of the total). As in previous years, China was the primary originating country (80%) of counterfeit goods, followed by Hong Kong, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and India. Panama was the top source of counterfeit alcoholic beverages.

What happens after seizure? Once a suspected counterfeit product has been seized and a brand owner alerted, the trademark owner will typically have three options, namely:

• To request the destruction of the goods;
• To commence court proceedings to seek legal redress;
• To decide not to pursue any action, in which case the detained goods will be released.

However, even if the quantities involved in the seizure are small, it is generally not advisable to choose to overlook the infringement and allow the items to be released. Not only will taking action indicate to customs and infringers that a company is serious about fighting counterfeits, but it will also ensure that the seized goods are permanently removed from the market. In more than 90% of the detentions assessed for the report, goods were either destroyed or a court case was initiated to determine an infringement.

Support for brand owners On 1 January 2015, a new Regulation on IP enforcement at customs came into force in the EU, strengthening customs authorities’ ability to protect brand owner rights by widening the list of possible IP infringements. For example, the new regulation allows for infringements based on confusingly similar trademarks in addition to identical marks. It also extends the list of protected rights to trade names, topographies of semiconductor products, utility models, devices to circumvent technological measures and non-agricultural geographical indications.

The procedure for destroying goods suspected of infringed IP was also amended. Such goods can now be destroyed by customs control when they are suspected of infringing IP, and without the need to initiate a legal proceeding to determine the existence of an infringement. A new procedure for the simplified destruction of small consignments was also introduced to facilitate the destruction of goods shipped by post or express courier.

EU customs notices are administered through an online database – the anti-Counterfeit and anti-Piracy Information System (COPIS). This database is used by customs authorities to register applications for actions from IP right holders, as well as all infringements according to the category of goods and right-holder.

To find out more about counterfeiting or for assistance developing an anti-counterfeiting strategy, read our anti-counterfeiting FAQs.

Tudor Lodge Consultants are thrilled to be offering SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) for Regentsmead.

An award-winning property development company in London, Daniel and his team from Tudor Lodge have been busy in Q4 helping Regentsmead rank on Google’s organic searches for relevant search terms.

Taking an honest, clean and white hat SEO approach, the focus has been to tidy up all the meta-titles, alt text and headings on the site and add fresh content and videos. The results has seen a first page result for ‘property development finance,’ ‘development finance’ and other related keywords.

Looking forward, Tudor Lodge aim to help Regentsmead get top spots on Google by increasing their link profile. This will involve gaining strong links from other authority websites in the industry and finding new PR opportunities.

About Regentsmead

Regentsmead dates back to 1934 and recently celebrated their 80th Anniversary. The companyhelpdevelop property all over the UK. Led by CEO James Bloom, as well as working with experienced developers, they are used to helping inexperienced developers raise finance and get into the property market, supporting them every step of the way.

One of the best things about Regentsmead is their customer service. You will notice on their website that they have a LiveChat which puts you directly in touch with one of their loan executives, so you quickly know exactly who you are working with and you get the personal attention you require.

In 2015, they won the Moneyfacts award for Best Development Finance provider and we are pleased to be working with them to generate more online interest and allow them to build their property portfolio.