Starting Your Own Business: Free Workshop in Newcastle
The Hunter Business Centre is running a free seminar on ‘Starting Your Own Business’ on Tuesday 20 April. This free, introductory workshop will provide the basic facts about starting a small business in NSW. Topics to be covered include - why go into business, what to do before you can start trading, how to protect your business, the planning process, driving your business, finance and marketing, and where to from here? More>>

IP Licensing Opportunity – Silk Canvas
The Silk Canvas is a form of smooth-finish artist canvas used for creating artworks. The Canvas is formed by attaching a layer of silk to pre-primed plain canvas/fabric (e.g. cotton, linen, hemp, jute, duck canvas etc) with a surface coating then applied. The Silk Canvas provides professional artists, visual art teachers and students, or art and craft hobbyists with a highly versatile substrate, which can be used with a wide variety of mediums including oil and acrylic paint, watercolour, pastel, ink, pencil and silk dyes. Opportunity to license the intellectual property (IP) rights of this innovation is currently available. More>>

Warning: Unsolicited IP Services
IP Australia occasionally receives notification of instances in which inventors, designers and businesses have fallen victim to companies offering fraudulent IP protection, promotional or advertising services. While the majority of Australian companies providing support in registration, maintenance, promotion or advertising of IP are reputable, it pays to be cautious when receiving correspondence or responding to invoices regarding your IP. More>>

LESANZ Annual Conference 2010
The Licensing Executives Society of Australia and New Zealand (LESANZ) Annual Conference is being held in Adelaide 22-24 April. This year's conference is themed, "Public Good and Intellectual Property Rights". More>>

Engineering Excellence Awards 2010
The Engineering Excellence Awards 2010 recognise the expertise of individuals and engineering organisation. They also raise the professional standing of engineers in the community by generating a great public awareness of who engineers are and what they do. Level 1 entries for the Awards close 26 March. More>>

Innovation Pathways
Industry & Investment NSW and the Australian Technology Showcase (NSW) have developed the Innovation Pathways Program to integrate existing and new program elements to accelerate the growth of NSW organisations seeking to commercialise innovative technologies. The Pathways Program has been designed to complement Federal Government commercialisation initiatives (including the R&D Tax Credit and Commercialisation Australia) and the Australian Technology Showcase (ATS), as part of a whole-of-government approach to the commercialisation of innovative technologies. More>>

IP Licensing Opportunity – Cable Advancing Device
The Cable Advancing Device is an electrical installation tool used for drawing cable through conduit pipe. The device has been designed primarily for electrical contractors but can be used by other cabling professionals for telecommunications, security and fire protection. The device can also be used in both domestic and industrial cabling installations. Opportunity to license the intellectual property (IP) rights of this innovation is currently available. More>>

New Inventions Gallery launched on www.innovation.org.au
IDC has launched a new online Inventions Gallery at www.innovation.org.au/inventions. The Gallery showcases a number of inventors IDC has had the opportunity of working with in commercialising their new ideas. More>>

IDC Novelty Search Service
IDC has combined two of its most popular services – the International Patent Search and International Product Search to provide clients with a comprehensive ‘Novelty Search' solution. The service investigates the uniqueness or ‘novelty’ of new ideas by searching for prior art including both patented concepts and products that already exist in the marketplace. A Novelty Search is one of the first steps in the commercialisation process recommended by IDC as it is essential to be aware of any similar products as soon as possible so as to avoid potentially wasting valuable resources developing a new idea (when it already exists or is protected). Without investigating and/or knowing what’s already available could also lead to inadvertently infringing somebody else’s IP rights. For more information about IDC’s Novelty Search service please contact us. 

2010 Innovation Hero Awards 
The annual Innovation Heroes Award is an initiative of The Warren Centre, awarded for outstanding Australian innovations in engineering technology. It recognises people who bring great ideas to life, and the role they play in driving economic and social progress. The award is made to Australian-based people or teams that successfully develop a new technology into a commercial product or service and who create great benefit for Australia. More>>

IDC Innovation Client Secures Licensing Deal
Bill Rayner has secured a licensing agreement for the Intellectual Property rights to his invention, The Cutter. The licensee, a Boston USA-based company will manufacture, market and distribute The Cutter, which is expected to hit the shelves January 2010. A big congratulations to Bill from the team at IDC.