This week, we held the Mind The App breakfast event, in partnership with law firm Laytons and accountancy and business advice firm BDO. It was the first in a series aiming to tackle all the intricacies of the app world – not just the development process, but what comes next, and the legal and financial context around it.
First, Esther Gunaratnam – a partner in the Laytons commercial and corporate team, specialising in intellectual property and technology – spoke about how to protect your app idea, who owns the app once it’s built, and the relative benefits and drawbacks of copyright, trademark and patents.
Then Pocket App co-founder Paul Swaddle took attendees through the journey from idea to developed app – and beyond, in the form of post-launch support. He answered common questions like how much an app costs, and shared tips on raising investment for your app.
Finally, BDO’s Paul Wong, head of London R&D tax, and senior manager Greg Howe took to the stage. The two explained the UK government’s R&D tax credits and videogame & animation tax relief programmes. They laid out the benefits that both programmes can offer to SMEs and large companies developing an app, and how to know whether your project is eligible.
We wrapped up the event with a panel session, giving attendees a chance to put their questions to the morning’s speakers – underlining in particular the importance of GDPR to attendees, and how it affects the app ecosystem, on a topic on which both Paul and Esther shared their knowledge.
All in all, it was a great morning, and we’d like to thank Laytons and BDO for their involvement, and of course all of our attendees.
Pocket App will be holding more events in the Mind The App series in the future. Please simply drop us an email to contact@pocketapp.co.uk to be kept up to date.
