ONLINE SERVICE PUTS LONDON WOMAN IN RUNNING FOR INDUSTRY PRIZE

Added: (Wed Jan 30 2002)

Pressbox (Press Release) - A London inventor is in contention for the first ever Women Inventors in Industry Award at the British Female Inventor of the Year on 7 February with a product that could save small and medium-sized companies time and money.

IT Director of city-based law firm Berwin Leighton Paisner Janet Day and her team have been working on a joint project with top five accountancy firm Deloitte & Touche to develop an online interactive service to take the pain out of legal and tax procedures. BeProfessional offers an easy way of dealing with necessities such as VAT, Tax Return and Health & Safety forms. Janet’s team at Berwin Leighton Paisner initially started the project to create a system that would suit internal needs but eventually they realised its value to external users.

Janet, who has filed a patent for the technology used in the website, says: “Our clients are mainly FTSE 250 companies, but we realised that using this system we could provide cheaper services to smaller companies and make the system very accessible.”

Janet is one of several inventors competing for the first ever Women Inventors in Industry prize at the British Female Inventor of the Year Awards event and a share of up to £20,000 worth of prizes. Founder of the awards, Bola Olabisi says of the entrants: “It will be fascinating to see who wins the award because the inventions touch on many aspects of science, engineering and technology. The diversity shows that women can be active in all areas of innovation. We hope that the finalists will be an inspiration to young females everywhere to consider science, research & technology as career options.”

Melvyn Rees of The Patent Office says: “The great range of skills showcased at the event will offer budding woman inventors an insight into the exciting projects you can work on if you take up a career as a researcher.”

For more information on the event, please see the British Female Inventor of the Year website www.bfiy.com or write to British Female Inventor of the Year, PFWN, 4 Waverley Gardens, Barking, Essex IG11 0BG.

For more information about patents, trade marks, design registration and copyright, please see The Patent Office website at www.patent.gov.uk or contact The Patent Office Central Enquiry Unit on 08459 500505.

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Issued by Prowse & Co on behalf of The Patent Office.

For more press information, please contact:
Deborah Fields or Vicki Fletcher at Prowse & Company on 01372 363 386 or e-mail at deborah@prowse.co.uk or vicki@prowse.co.uk


Editor’s Notes
· The British Female Inventor of the Year is awarded to an inventor who has come up with an original product or process.
· The British Female Innovator is awarded to an inventor who has spotted a gap in the market and started to market her product or process to fill that gap.
· The winner of the British Female Inventor of the Year 2001 was Clare Newton with the Cuptake cupholder.
· Ann Kritzinger won the Female Innovator 2001 category with the Doubleback Multiple Copy Short-Run Bookbinding machine.
· Damini Kumar for her Non-Drip Spout for teapots and other pouring vessels won the Young Female Inventor of the Year 2001.

News release is available online at
http://www.prowse.co.uk/newsf.html

29 January 2002