Audrey Hartley-Martin producer of the “Ophir Unique” hair and skincare range.

Audrey Hartley-Martin has worked in Croydon for a number of years and has brought up her son James, now 26 years old.  For over six years she has been producing an effective skin cream that was originally inspired and created her own needs. Using all natural ingredients, Audrey has managed to perfect her formula and has build up a large number of enthusiastic takers amongst her friends and family. She has also developed a hair treatment that helps keep black hair soft and manageable.

When Audrey approached Ideas into Business for help, she had decided on a brand for her product: “Ophir Unique” but had done nothing about protecting the name.  Ideas into Business have developed a programme of workshops, business coaching and partnership to help people start their business or grow their business using new ideas, new methods and innovative ways of thinking. Wendy Buckley, who became Audrey’s business coach, says: “People often think that Intellectual Property law just covers patents for inventions but there are aspects of IP, from copyright and trade marking to design registration and contracts that are important for everybody.  I encouraged Audrey to join our session as a way of taking her business to the next level.”

Audrey was an active participant in the Introduction to Intellectual Property workshop held at Lombard House in the context of the Ideas into Business programme for Croydon Enterprise. Although some of the content of the workshop is quite technical it is actually a fun experience. “We try to adapt the content to the specific needs of the people attending so that makes for a varied, interesting and enjoyable session.” says Wendy.

Following the session Audrey worked with the IiB partner, Briffa, who specialise in Intellectual property law to trade mark her brand, “Ophir Unique”.  Silas Brown, an Intellectual Property specialist at Briffa, encourages clients to think about applying for a European-wide trademark even though it is a bit more expensive.  “Since the EU trade mark applies in all the countries of the European Union it is actually cost-effective to start with this general application if it’s appropriate to your future plans.”

Now that Audrey can use the famous TM appended to her product name, the next step for her is to find premises suitable for the production of her skin and hair care products – she has the positive problem of having more customers than she can satisfy using her current production methods!