Public Funding for Ip Quest Limited

For the UK economy, innovation is crucial to competitive edge. According to statistics from the UK Intellectual Property Office, UK firms annually invest more in ideas and knowledge than buildings and machinery. Innovation is underpinned by the intellectual property (IP) system. However, this system can be difficult to understand, and businesses are typically ill equipped to recognise valuable assets and avoid costly infringements as they innovate. “It is vital that we have an IP literate workforce to meet the challenges of a rapidly changing workplace.” - David Willets, former UK Minister for Science. IP Quest’s ambition is to transform the acquisition of vital IP skills, by creating a sophisticated IP visualisation tool for effective innovation modelling and planning and revolutionising engagement with the subject through simulation and an immersive learning environment. IP Quest currently provides facilitated workshops using an innovative immersive learning environment, used over the last 5 years to teach this complex subject to businesses and undergraduates and remove the barriers to accessing IP knowledge. IP Quest proposes to use this background as the launch pad for an innovative, user-centric digital platform that incorporates state of the art machine learning, genetic algorithms and interactive 3D graphics to provide an advanced business simulation tool for testing and refining IP strategies. Through use of the platform, businesses will gain an unparalleled intuitive understanding of IP, allowing them to manage and exploit their IP assets to full effect. The system will provide applied learning, increasing engagement and sustainable learning outcomes as well as transforming the accessibility of the platform for a much wider audience. This project aims to validate the market in key sectors, determine the nature and size of the market and provide a robust and achievable project plan for delivering a pioneering IP learning and visualisation solution

IP Quest is a facilitated training workshop for teaching the subject of intellectual property to undergraduates using a board game. The game is an innovative and effective approach to teaching this complex subject. A digital version of the board game is planned because this would allow a much wider audience to be reached and for the learning content to be substantially enriched. The Innovation Voucher will be used to purchase the services of a games software developer to produce a demonstration version of the learning game for customer feedback. The feedback will be used to attract funding for a full version of the game.