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Liverpool Sound City App Challenge invites Jackson & Canter’s Michael Sandys onto judging panel

Liverpool Sound City has revealed that Michael Sandys, Head of Commercial Law at city firm Jackson & Canter Solicitors, will be one of the judges of the new Sound City App Challenge in association with Apposing.

The competition is part of the Liverpool Sound City Student Innovation Awards. The annual conference has launched the awards to uncover people using and developing new technology to create and deliver music or engage audiences in unique ways.

Michael Sandys has been invited to judge the contest alongside investors, sponsors and leading music industry decision-makers to offer a legal perspective on the innovative apps students have developed. He will also be able to offer advice about how the inventors can go about protecting their ideas and products.

“Musicians, artists and inventors are great at being creative but not always keen to plan ahead in protecting their rights,” he said. “The thought of receiving exposure for a piece of music you have created or a unique app that engages a large audience can be very enticing.

“But when large companies begin to show an interest in your creation, small print in the contracts they offer will deal with important issues regarding future copyright ownership and many other issues. This is why you must safeguard and protect your Intellectual Property Rights while also ensuring it is commercialised in a fair way.

“In the development of an app there will be issues regarding copyright and trade marks and even possible patent protection if there is an identifiable technical effect; as well as “moral rights” – which provide for the right to be identified as the creator and a right not to have your work distorted or mutilated.”

As technology becomes an ever more critical part of the music industry, Liverpool Sound City has recognised the importance of offering emerging talent a platform to showcase their work.

Teams of students and lecturers from eight Further Education institutions and Universities have entered the competition and will present their apps to judges at the Hilton Hotel on The Strand in Liverpool between May 1-3.

“In 2011 as part of a final year college project, 23-year-olds Evan Spiegel and Bobby Murphy came up with a new tech idea that allowed users to share images and video where the content expired after 10 seconds,” said Laurence Fenlon, Sponsorship Director of Liverpool Sound City.

“They called the app Snapchat and were ridiculed by their peers who thought it was an awful idea. Two years later Snapchat delivers around 350 million messages per day and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg recently lodged a $3 billion bid to purchase the company.

The old bureaucracy is defunct. With the right tech innovation the route to market is easier than it has ever been before and we are embracing this ethos. Our search is on for the brightest and most innovative students in the UK.“

For advice on Intellectual Property Rights, protecting your ideas and innovations and more, contact Jackson & Canter Solicitors on 0333 321 4580.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Dan Minchin .