Murgitroyd, the global intellectual property (IP) attorney firm, headquartered in Glasgow - which recently announced the launch of a new innovation competition called the "Innovator Launchpad Award" - has said that it has been “delighted” with the response with a high degree of interest from pre-profit businesses from all across the UK.

The competition, which is offering a £7,500 prize to pre-profit businesses or organisations based in the UK who can show that they have created a groundbreaking solution to a business or social problem, was launched on 2 May on a Facebook platform, and has since gone on to grow its Facebook following and generate interest in a wide cross-section of business sectors.

Murgitroyd’s European Marketing Manager, Fiona McKenzie, said: “We’ve been impressed at the power of social media in spreading news of the award and in reaching our target audience of the next generation of UK entrepreneurs. We’ve been making use of Facebook Live and the range of other tools offered by Facebook to get our message out, and the response has been superb – we seem to have hit just the right cross-section of the population”.

The Herald:

“We’ve had applications from across the high-tech, fashion, pharmaceutical, renewables and design industries to name a few, and these have been received from many different parts of the UK. The application process is simple and short – all that’s needed is a 300-500 word summary of your solution to a problem. We feel that busy entrepreneurs have responded to this, and been pleased to enter as a result”.

Businesses have until 9 June 2017 (1200 BST) to submit their applications, which will then go to a public Facebook vote, with the “top three” from the Facebook vote then going through to a formal judging process to decide the first, second and third-prize rankings.

The first prize is made up of £5,000 cash, £2,500 in IP services and a PR package. Second and third prize winners will claim £1,000 in IP services. Prize winners will be announced in a Facebook Live broadcast on 27 June 2017.

The Herald:

Fiona McKenzie said: “The competition is hotting up, and we would encourage all up and coming entrepreneurs to take part – for the time it takes to write a 300-500 word summary, you could win a substantial cash injection to your business.”

“It’s easy to enter – just log on to Facebook and type “Innovator Launchpad” in the search bar. We wish all entrants the best of luck!”