Editorial - the Future of Terpsichore

Jane Lambert

I started blogging nearly 10 years ago because I had been commissioned by Gower-Ashgate to write a book for entrepreneurs and small business owners on enforcing intellectual property rights. Writing articles for the blog helped me compile the manuscript for Enforcing Intellectual Property Rights A Concise Guide for Businesses, Innovative and Creative Individuals which was published in 2009.

I continued the blog after I had submitted my manuscript and it became very big indeed with thousands of hits. Some of my posts, such as my case note on the Red Bus photograph case, went viral. I found two kinds of readers: patent and trade mark attorneys and specialist intellectual property lawyers who wanted to discuss every last detail of the latest case or enactment and artists, designers, inventors and business owners who wanted to know about changes in the law that might affect them personally. For the latter group I set up regional blogs such as IP Yorkshire and IP North West.

Ballet scores, choreography notations, performances by dancers and musicians and films and broadcasts of ballets are intellectual assets which the law protects with intellectual property rights. In discussing those rights I found myself inadvertently writing reviews of performances by Northern Ballet for IP Yorkshire and IP North West. Similarly, dance studios are small businesses so I found myself writing about the studio where I took my first dance lessons in Interesting Yorkshire Businesses No. 1: The Base Studios Huddersfield.

Now not every lawyer is a dance fan and few dance fans have any interest in the law - particularly not the very esoteric area in which I practise - so I started Terpsichore in February 2013. That, too, has grown very big and I now find myself writing and tweeting almost as much about dance as I do about the law. As my discussions on legal topics can't be much fun for dancers and I have been told many times that my discussions on dance classes are a bit of a turn off for many lawyers I have decided to separate the two. I will still tweet about great performances and great classes as "nipclaw" just as I will throw in my 5p worth about business, economics, politics and religion on that account but I will channel most of my dance talk through my new "Terpsichore" twitter account and Facebook group.

Over the last two years I have noticed a number of unmet needs for dance fans, dancers, dance teachers, dance schools, dance studios and even dance companies which have given me ideas for small spin-off businesses under the Terpsichore brand. If I ever have time to get any of those projects off the ground I will announce them in this blog and through the new social media accounts.

I should like to wish all my readers a very happy New Year.