Youth to learn about intellectual property through workshops

The Slovenian Technical Museum launched in March a project dubbed ICYDK to educate youths about intellectual property.

Analyses conducted in EU countries by the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) through the European Observatory on Infringements of Intellectual Property Rights in 2016 and 2017 have shown Slovenian youth to be poorly informed about the topic.

As part of the project, the museum and the Slovenian Intellectual Property Office have set up a temporary exhibition on innovator Peter Florjančič and intellectual property.

They want to show young people that intellectual property is pervasive, present in everything they wear and in everything they use, including their smartphone, Technical Museum curator Irena Marušič has said.

Along with the exhibition, the museum also hosts workshops at which representatives of the Intellectual Property Office educate the young on intellectual property, its importance, and the role of the Office.

So far, three such workshops have been organised with about 200 young participants, according to the museum. The last one was held just last week.

Youth must be aware of the importance of intellectual property

According to Samra Šećerović of the Intellectual Property Office, the notion of intellectual property is very broad, encompassing everything from patents, brands and models to geographical labels. She is therefore not surprised that young people are not very familiar with it.

Šećerović said she was glad that the museum was changing this with its workshops, and that primary school students were taught about the issue so they could learn what can be protected as intellectual property and what the role of the Office is.

Raising awareness about intellectual property is important, because the young will encounter this later in life, when they start creating in science, industry, art or literature.

Teacher Katja Kozjek Varl of the Malečnik Primary School, who has visited the museum together with her students, said that the importance of intellectual property should be emphasised more in schools, especially now that entrepreneurship and self-employment are being increasingly promoted.

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering aware of the importance of protection of intellectual property

The Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in Ljubljana, which hosted the Days of Mechanical Engineering in cooperation with the Technical Museum last week, is aware of the importance of protection of intellectual property.

As part of the annual event, students and other visitors were offered insight into the appealing world of engineering.

The faculty mostly collaborates with businesses, which is where its concern for the protection of intellectual property stems from. The faculty puts great emphasis on the protection of intellectual property and attests its technical excellence mainly through international patents.

Raising awareness about intellectual property and its protection among youths is very important and is only the first step, the faculty believes.

"Even more important for reaching the goal of securing the market advantage of business entities is to significantly expand the range of working environments on the national level, so as to allow for intellectual property to be actually generated in breakthrough areas and subsequently generate higher added value," the faculty has said.

About the ICYDK project

The name of the one-year project is ICYDK, which is a popular acronym for In Case You Did not Know. The project is co-funded by the European Union Intellectual Property Office.

The project aims to raise awareness about intellectual property, its importance, role and influence. The museum therefore offers various educational on-line material, monthly e-news on intellectual property for the young, a competition and various workshops and lectures.