IMPACT®

Hackney: a call

Not long after I finished my post the other day, I got a phone call from Hackney's information officer (I don't think they're connected). Anyway, he was very apologetic and said that my request hadn't been logged/got misplaced and should've been passed to him. He tells me he's on the case and they will aim to get back to me within the 20 day time limit if I would agree or he could provide me with details of their complaints procedure.

I've agreed to let them try and answer request so let's wait and see what happens. Keep watching.

Size 10½ Boots

One of my roles in my professonal life is as regional chair of the PM Forum in the East Midlands. We had a meeting today with an excellent presentation by Stuart Powell of The Hughes Company.

Anyway, one of the new members in our region is local professional services marketing firm, Size 10½ Boots and I had a good chat to Bernard Savage, a director at the company. I particularly wanted to speak to Bernard because I loved the name and I asked him about it. I won't repeat everything that he said because he got some great local press coverage last week (you'll need PDF) that can fill you in with the details. You can also watch the video on their site (great idea). But the key thing that Bernard said was:

"You've got to stand out, haven't you?"

My point exactly. You'll remember his firm name. If you get one of his mailshots you'll also remember his name because chances are he'll actually send you a size 10½ boot! And that, of course, is the whole point of branding - to distinguish yourself from your competitors.

Bernand also used that oft-overlooked space to communicate what he does - the back of his business card. The back of his business card says:

"marketing consultancy for professional service firms"

His website says the same. This is a great illustration of how you can easily combine the message about "what you do" along with a great brand. A brand that tries to do both is probably going to fail at being a brand (that is, it will blend in to a sea of blandness) and maybe won't say what you do that well either.

Rapid diet success

Nikolina Bartels-King from London has benefitted from the Rosemary Conley effect. However, what she lost was the domain name "rosemaryconley.com"!

For the full decision see: WIPO Domain Name Decision D2006-1401 for rosemaryconley.com

What's interesting about this is that it confirms the same stuff that I've been preaching for a while:

• Register key domains. They are cheap so avoid the trouble. If you've chosen to use "rosemary-conley.co.uk" as you main domain, get the .com and the version without the hyphen with co.uk and the .com too as these are such obvious ones that people type as a straight guess.
• Use a watching service to alert you to this type of activity.

OGC review of standard IT contracts for public sector buyers

The Register has reported that the Office for Government and Commerce is expanding its review of the standard IT contracts for public sector buyers. The OGC started its review back in 2005 as a result of pressure from suppliers in the IT industry.

The Register seems to have got its information directly from the OGC; there is no information on the OGC website about any expansion of the review. The Register comments:

"What we don't yet know is what this all means for the £12bn of procurement managed annually by the public sector. That is, whether the new model contract terms the industry has opposed actually give the government better value for money on IT contracts."

As an IT lawyer acting for both the private and public sectors, my personal view is that the standard IT contracts are actually likely to have given the government worse value for money than it received before the contracts were in use.

A desire to get the best possible contract for the public sector body means that the legitimate concerns of the private sector supplier are often ignored. This means that some suppliers may drop out of the procurement process because the legal risks involvement are seen as too much, or that the suppliers face unnecessarily high costs in winning public sector business.

IT suppliers will be hoping that the result of the OGC review is a set of standards more fairly balanced, meaning that the public sector and private sectors will be able to work together more easily, with costs savings all round.

Scam Baiting: know what it is?

If not, have a read of what Wikipedia says on the subject. For a full example, have a look at a full example on Scambaits (amusing, but long).

One millionth petitioner signs up

OK, so this isn't a story that particularly fits the bill of this blog directly. However, indirectly, the ability to e-petition the Prime Minister is part of a more open government and being used to lobby on a whole load of issues, including things relating to privacy. With that reasoning, I was interested to see this press release from Number 10: One millionth petitioner signs up.

"Downing Street's e-petition service has passed a landmark by receiving its one millionth online signature."

Bogus data protection agencies: ringleaders sentenced to prison

Further press release from the Information Commissioner: Bogus data protection agencies: ringleaders sentenced to prison (PDF).

"Liverpool Crown Court sentenced four men to prison today for their involvement in fake data protection agencies"

Young people can access information about them held by schools

New press release just out from the Information Commissioner: Young people can access information about them held by schools (PDF):

"The Information Commissioner’s Office has published new guidance today explaining the rights that young people have to access information held about them by their school."

Levi's: the press view of intellecual property

There's a story in today's Independent about Levi's. The gist of the story is this:

• Levi's missed out on the premium jeans market
• As a result, its suing lots of other jean's manufacturers (as a minor aside, Levi's corporate website has a story suggestion for the media of "What's the most-often copied apparel item in history?")

The story's good in that it picks upon the brand's failure to spot the trend in the jeans market until too late. It also says that Levi's is in the top 10 US companies involved in litigation.

However, if you were looking at the story as a case study in intellectual property then you'd be very confused. The writer mentions patents, designs and copyright. There's a quote from Levi's about trade marks. "What is going on?", you might ask yourself.

Here's a thumbnail recap of intellectual property:

• Copyright: this is essentially about text and writing (including computer programs), sound and films, photographs and paintings;
• Designs: this is about the shape and look of things;
• Patents: these cover the way things work;
• Trademarks: these are about brands; the names you give your products.

So what about Levi's jeans? This whole story is really about trademarks. In a profile of Levi's main in-house lawyer in August 2006 in Law.com, the article said:

"Levi Strauss regards its trademarks as highly valuable assets and enforces its intellectual property rights. As such, IP issues are a primary legal focus of the company, which holds more than 5,000 trademark registrations and pending applications in approximately 180 countries" and

"the company is pursuing approximately 500 infringement matters around the world"

So what's my point here? If intellectual property is valuable to your business, or you think it is, then at least try to understand what the different types of right are and what you have. If you talk in unclear terms, as the unaware journalist might, you may struggle to get people to take your message seriously.

Outsourcing - more on cutting out the middlemen

Following on from our recent items on the trend towards hiring Indian outsourcing talent direct rather than contracting with local service providers, this item from the ihotdesk site reports a better than 10% hike in Accenture's Indian-end recruiting.