1. Competition open to UK and RoI residents aged 18 or over except employees of Times Newspapers Ltd (TNL), News International Ltd, The White Company, members of the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys, their families, agents or any other person(s) connected with the competition.
2. All entrants must be mothers (or primary caregivers) of a child of less than 18 years. Proof of qualification to enter may be requested.
3. Entries must be received by 23:59:59 Tuesday, March 1, 2005 UK time. Entries must be the original invention of the entrant alone, the invention must not have been made available to the public and the entrant must not be aware of any other reason why she should not be validly granted a UK patent for the invention. All entrants must keep their entries confidential — neither The Times nor the patent attorneys will be responsible for an inability to obtain a patent due to the winner’s acts or omissions.
4. The winner will be decided by the judging panel on the criteria published in The Times.
5. The winner will be notified within 3 months of the closing date by the contact details included in their entry.
Advertisement
6. The prize consists of the services of a patent attorney who will (i) conduct initial searches to determine the likelihood of a success of a patent application, (ii) draft a patent application and file the application with the UK Patent Office, including payment of the examination fee, and (iii) reasonable steps to allow the application to proceed to grant. The prize includes initial search fees and filing fees. The prize does not include renewal fees, contentious proceedings, challenges to ownership, applications to revoke the patent or any other litigation actions, applications outside the UK, or commercial development of the invention, all of which are the responsibility of the winner. Only services related to a UK patent will be provided. TNL and the patent attorney reserve the right to discontinue the patent application if in the reasonable opinion of the patent attorney further pursuit of the application is not warranted. The patent attorney will be a fellow of the CIPA selected by TNL, and his services may be provided by other members of a firm within which he practises. The winner will be a client of that firm and will (except for liability for the costs of the services included in the prize) agree to be subject to the usual terms of business of the firm. TNL reserves the right to substitute an alternative prize to the services to be provided by the patent attorney.
7. Except for death or personal injury arising from the acts or omissions of TNL, the CIPA or its employees, neither TNL nor the CIPA accepts any liability to the winner for any failure of the patent application to be granted, any actions or liabilities arising from the patent grant, the consequences of the winner commercialising the invention or any other loss, harm or damage arising from this competition.
8. TNL will not be liable for any failure of receipt of entries. TNL takes no responsibility for any entries that are lost, delayed, illegible, corrupted, damaged, incomplete or otherwise invalid.
9. Entries will not be acknowledged or returned. All non-winning entries will be kept confidential and will be destroyed by TNL after a winner has been announced.
10. By entering, entrants agree to be bound by these terms and conditions. Entries that do not comply with the terms and conditions are invalid.
Advertisement
11. Only one entry per person. The prize is non-transferable, and cash alternatives are not available.
12. By entering, the winner agrees to her name and general location being used for publicity purposes by The Times and Sunday Times newspapers in any and all media. The winner also agrees to a description of the invention being used for publicity purposes after a patent application has been filed.
13. For a list of winners please send a stamped envelope to Times Newspaper Limited Competitions Department, 1 Virginia Street, London, E98 1RL, England, stating for which competition you would like winners’ details.
14. Any breach of these competition rules by an entrant will void their entry. Misrepresentative or fraudulent entries will invalidate an entry.
15. The Editor’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
Advertisement
16. TNL reserves the right at any time to cancel, modify or supersede the competition (including altering prizes) if, in our sole discretion, a competition is not capable of being conducted as specified.
17. Competition rules published in The Times form part of these rules.
18. The Promoter is Times Newspapers Limited, 1 Virginia Street London E98 1XY.