November 2009 - Taking the lead - Animal rehoming software developed in Gloucestershire - Issued by BPE Solicitors

Microchipping was at the heart of Labour’s animal welfare proposals, unveiled at its recent party conference, where it pledged to introduce plans to microchip all dogs after the next general election.

Conservative politicians are also in agreement that compulsory microchipping would help to curb the number of stray dogs and deter owners from buying animals they are not prepared to look after properly.

A Cheltenham IT company has taken the effective use of the information contained in an animal’s microchip to a new level to help animals who might find themselves needing a new home. Innov8ive Software Limited has built a simple to use, but state of the art, web-based animal rehoming system called AniLog™ for use by animal welfare charities.

It is currently the only software provider for not for profit animal welfare charities to offer electronic registration and re-registration of ownership details to major microchip providers, as well as electronic signature capture. All of this electronic integration saves charities using AniLog® time and money, as well as helping the environment. One of their multi-site clients rehomes approximately 7000 dogs per year and is now looking forward to large reductions in printing and postage costs.

Every lost or stray animal arriving at a shelter is checked with an electronic reader to see if they already have a microchip. AniLog® software integrates with these readers and electronically sends the microchip number to national databases to verify ownership details and retrieve veterinary history information if known.

This includes details of whether the animal has been spayed or neutered, which can save animal charities hundreds of pounds in vets’ bills as investigative surgery does not need to be carried out on each female prior to them being rehomed.

Its unique software has been protected by BPE’s intellectual property team, led by Partner Iain Garfield. With Iain’s help the software has already been licensed to a number of animal charities including Plymouth-based Woodside Animal Welfare Trust, Border Collie Trust GB and North Clwyd Animal Rescue to name just a few.

“Innov8ive Software have invested a great deal of time and energy into developing AniLog® and it was crucial to the future of the business that their intellectual property was protected,” said Iain Garfield, whose team was recently recognised by the independent legal directory, The Legal 500, for its intellectual property expertise.

“As a relatively new entrant in a highly competitive marketplace it was essential that BPE helped the Innov8ive team to license their product, so they were protected from having their ideas exploited by others,” added Iain.

Christina Johnston, Business Development Director at Innov8ive Software, said: “Trusting someone to protect a ground breaking new product such as AniLog® is a huge step for any company. I am confident that Iain and his team have protected our best interests and will be with us every step of the way as we continue to develop our business going forward.”