Dragon Plastics

How we help our clients focus their R&D, become more innovative and beat the competition

Background

Founded in 1968, Dragon Plastics is based in Pontypridd in Wales, where it occupies a 60,000 sq ft factory. Among other things, the company manufacturers and supplies plastic screw caps for the containment of medicines. However, its ambition is to be a substantial innovator in closure and packaging technology.

Dragon Plastics was a founder member of the UK wide Child-Safe Packaging Group (CSPG), whose principal aim was to promote the specification and success of child-resistant packaging solutions. Dragon is also a member of the Closure Manufacturers Association (CMA), a body that represents companies at the forefront of the closure industry throughout the US, Canada and the European Union.

The issue

Competition has long been intense within the closure industry and there was little room for innovation. Dragon Plastics had previously, inadvertently fallen foul of a copyright infringement action and the company was understandably sensitive to such issues.

Despite this, the company knew from experience that the production of technical screw caps that provided effective child resistance within the medicines market offered premium pricing. An important development emerged in the form of new legislation requiring child-resistant closures (CRCs) for medicines and toxic substances such as paint thinners.

Dragon's aim was to find an effective route to market. However they were aware of a number of patented designs that inhibited their progress.

The solution

Withers & Rogers were asked to consider the situation and advise the client. We began by initiating two searches. The first search looked for one-piece caps having co-axial features. Such caps were of a common design and found on oil cans, for example. The second concentrated on multi-component caps - more technical and reliable, but much more expensive. This category had a clear market leader, with over 90% market share thanks in part to an effective patent portfolio.

Withers & Rogers drew up a matrix of technologies and areas of intellectual property protection in order to identify a ‘technology gap' in which no patent coverage existed. We then worked with Dragon Plastics to design a one-piece cap suitable for medicines and a number of similar applications that would meet customers' demands. We obtained a patent for the new design and also registered the newly created Kidlok trade mark.

The cap continues to be commercially successful in today's market place. Working closely with Withers & Rogers, Dragon were able to create a market opportunity that they were able to exploit, meeting a real client need.

The knock-on effect has also been significant as the successful approach has helped raise the technical ability of the client and their awareness of the value of intellectual property. Dragon has since concentrated on technical caps for high-end products such as in the cosmetics sector and this in turn has led to a widening of their customer base.

What the client says

"As a closure and container manufacturer serving a widely-spread and competitive collection of markets, pharmaceutical, toiletries, beauty, household products and food, the development of our intellectual property portfolio is vital to our success. It is equally vital that we retain a first class firm of patent and trade mark attorneys; and over the last twenty years, Withers & Rogers has filled that role admirably.

"The professional care and expertise provided by Adrian Chettle and his team have been second to none. Adrian is always available to discuss ideas and his wealth of detailed knowledge has ensured that from the earliest stage, all of our concepts are fully worked up, that all patent implications are investigated and grounded and that our intellectual property is both protected and maximized.

"Last year we acquired a substantial interest in a protective clothing and workwear distributor (GBR Workwear) where new designs and other innovations were a major source of competitive advantage. Again Adrian was of real assistance to us and I was amazed that, with little prior warning, he could apply his expertise to a totally different sector.

"Over the years we have been pleased to recommend Withers & Rogers to a number of organisations and of course we will continue to do so. But not to any of our competitors, we don't want them to enjoy the advantage of Adrian's brand of service!"

Rod Parker, Managing Director, Dragon Plastics Limited

"Access to experienced patent advisors is crucial and it helps if they are ex-examiners, so they can tell us with some degree of certainty which inventions are likely to achieve patent protection and which are not."

John Wheals, Chief Engineer of Innovation, Ricardo