In December 2017 I was delighted to be a member of faculty delivering an international seminar in Abu Dhabi organized by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in collaboration with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and the Korea Invention Promotion Association (KIPA), with the assistance of the Ministry of Economy, United Arab Emirates.
The seminar followed a WIPO event in May 2017 in Bucharest, where we introduced a concept new to intellectual property education for schools – TRIZ. TRIZ is ‘a problem-solving, analysis and forecasting tool derived from the study of patterns of invention in the global patent literature’. TRIZ is being used as a means of supporting innovators to improve patent strategy by linking a design model to TRIZ tools and methods, and patent strategy data. As such, TRIZ has a part to play where young people are learning about innovation, entrepreneurship and the role of intellectual property.
WIPO has appreciated that it is easier to convince governmental education policy makers of the importance of producing a rising generation of successful innovators and creators than it is to ask them directly to introduce IP Education to schools. As a result, the seminar focused on identifying learning outcomes that education managers would expect teachers to receive from a qualification that would equip them to make the case for IP Education.
Participants from Europe, Middle East, Asia, Africa, Central and Southern America worked together, under the guidance of an international team that included one of Philips of Eindhoven’s experienced TRIZmasters. The work continues, with participants and faculty taking it forward to agree learning outcomes that will shape the new Intellectual Property Impact course that will take its place in the WIPO Academy alongside the general course on Intellectual Property Rights.
Professor Emerita, Bournemouth University
