BBC Dragons’ Den product infringes patents

The Rapstrap reusable tie strip product featured on the BBC's Dragons' Den program in August 2008 and received a £150,000 investment by Dragons James Caan and Duncan Bannatyne, infringes a patent of Millepede, the UK Intellectual Property Office announced in an opinion issued this week.

The UK Intellectual Property Office undertook - at the request of Millepede - a full technical review of the Rapstrap product made by Andrew Harsley, an ex-employee of Millepede, and concluded it infringes Millepede's granted patent on Millie-Tie, pictured right.

Both parties supplied additional information and details to a senior examiner at the UK patent office to allow his review, and the examiner concluded the Rapstrap product possessed all the characteristics needed to infringe the Millepede patent.

The Rapstrap has received major publicity in the UK as the most successful Dragons' Den product in the history of the program by securing a £36m order from a major distributor. 

John Butterworth, Millepede's managing director (pictured), said: "I was amazed when Harsley, who had previously founded the Millepede company, forgot to mention Millepede's existence on the programme. Then afterwards all the parties showed a lack of interest in talking to Millepede about our prior patent. I hope this official review will now change that situation." 

The Dragons' Den episode can be viewed at http://www.bbc.co.uk/dragonsden/episodes/s6e4rapstrap.shtml

The full UK Intellectual Property Office patent infringement adjudication is available by pdf and can be viewed at: http://www.ipo.gov.uk/op2608.pdf