Pictured above: Mike Wakeling

People looking to rip off others' ideas are in danger of getting egg on their face, a Midland lawyer has warned.

Mike Wakeling, a partner with Lodders Solicitors in Stratford upon Avon, spoke out following a row between two companies - one an established educational programme provider, the other a newly hatched business

The feathers started flying when a former franchisee of established business Living Eggs, set up a rival operation, the Happy Chick Company.

It all ended up in Birmingham County Court with Madeline McRanor of HCC shelling out over disputed bookings and agreeing to reveal customer lists.

Mr Wakeling, who represented Living Eggs, said it showed how important it was to defend vigorously any attacks on intellectual property rights.

"We did that in this case and Living Eggs' stance has been fully vindicated and acknowledged," he stated.

"It is a lesson to other firms to safeguard their position and not be afraid to take vigorous action should the necessity arise."

The Living Eggs concept was developed in Australia by sole director Mark Hunt - now based near Henley in Arden - and launched in the UK in 2005.

Incubators are taken into schools and other establishments for some 12 days and the children observe the eggs hatching, often as part of a class project.

Tied in with a structured educational programme, a fee is charged for the work involved and the chicks are eventually either kept by the schools or given to local farms.

In Australia the Living Eggs business, operating via a franchise system, services around 2,000 schools a year. And in the UK the same level has been reached with more than a dozen franchisees turning over in the region of £450,000 a year in total.

Mr Hunt maintains Living Eggs was the first properly established business of its kind in the UK.

He said: "Prior to our commencement there was no established provider and very little use of live embryo hatching type programmes in schools.

"There are some city farms which provide embryo eggs on a very small scale but do not offer a structured programme and do not supply detailed educational resources."

So Mr Hunt was "shocked" when last year Peterborough-based Ms McRanor terminated her franchise and established HCC.

He claimed she was in breach of undertakings and obligations and sought recourse to the law.

He said: "My company does not seek and cannot prevent any third party from competing with Living Eggs.

"However it is only fair and reasonable that people should not be able to terminate their franchise and immediately use everything they have been given by Living Eggs to compete against the company."

Living Eggs maintains former franchisees should not be able to operate without restriction for a year from termination. "And this means establishing a fresh customer base and not trading on the back of the Living Eggs name and contacts."

In court an agreement, which has now expired, was eventually struck.

HCC agreed for a period of several months not to operate identical operations to Living Eggs, not to take bookings, pay 25 per cent of the gross fees on those bookings it had taken in the interim, and hand over its customer list.

Mr Hunt said: "It was a very satisfactory outcome - asking Lodders to take this matter up was the right call."

Mr Wakeling added: "Intellectual property is the life blood of many businesses and if others seek to take advantage of that it can be very damaging.

"Companies need to have watertight franchise agreements and be constantly on their guard."

For more information about Lodders Solicitors LLP, please visit their website here: www.lodders.co.uk