Book Review: Teaching of Intellectual Property - Principles and Methods

As use of the intellectual property (IP) system continues to accelerate worldwide, so the demand keeps growing for more and better IP education. In this new handbook, co-published by WIPO and Cambridge University Press, internationally renowned IP professors and practitioners share their teaching techniques and offer advice on what to include in coursework.

Intellectual property (IP) has become an increasingly critical tool for governments, industry and the private sector, and for various segments of the public. IP education needs are currently greater than ever, and are expanding daily in view of the pace of technological, social and commercial developments.

More IP professionals must be educated and trained. It is equally clear that their expertise in IP must be both broad, and at the same time, more specifically attuned to the practical, day to day realities, challenges and opportunities faced by businesses. In many countries, however, IP education is hindered not only by the insufficient number of trained teachers, but also by lack of guidance as to how best to teach IP.

A multi-disciplinary approach to IP education
 

To meet these challenges, WIPO approached a number of world renowned IP professors, and asked them to set out in concise chapters what is contained in the courses they teach, how they teach those courses, and what tips and insights they could share. The knowledge and expertise they offered is compiled in one moderately priced volume, designed for anyone wishing to enhance their IP teaching skills. The book, Teaching of Intellectual Property - Principles and Methods, combines theoretical applications with pragmatic expertise, and moves into new ground by taking a multi-disciplinary approach to IP education. As such, the value of this book is not limited to teachers, or future teachers, of IP, but is equally relevant to teachers and students of economics, business, science and technology.

The stand-alone chapters were written by the following experts:

• Teaching patents, by Joseph Straus, former director of the Max Planck Institute for Intellectual Property, Competition and Tax Law, and chair of the managing board of the Munich Intellectual Property Center.

• Teaching copyright and related rights, by Mihály Ficsor, a former Assistant Director General of WIPO who assisted in the conclusion of WIPO Internet Treaties.

• Teaching trademark law, by Jeremy Phillips, research director of the UK Intellectual Property Institute and visiting professor at University College London. (See also A Day in the Life of an IP Blog-meister in this edition of the WIPO Magazine)

• Teaching industrial design law, by William T. Fryer III, professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law, who participated in the negotiation of the Geneva Act of the Hague Agreement.

• Teaching IP, unfair competition and anti-trust law, by Thomas Cottier and Christophe Germann. Thomas Cottier is managing director of the World Trade Institute, professor of economics and law at the University of Berne, and was Switzerland's chief negotiator for the TRIPS Agreement. Dr. Germann is an attorney and lecturer on IP at the University of Berne.

• Teaching the economics of IP rights in the global economy, by Keith E. Maskus, professor at the University of Colorado, Boulder, who served as a lead economist at the World Bank.

• Teaching IP in a business school, by Susanna H.S. Leong, professor at the National University of Singapore.

• Teaching IP practical skills for practitioners and attorneys, by Heinz Goddar, patent attorney, associate judge and a former president of the Licensing Executives Society International.

• Teaching IP to non-law students, by Ruth Soetendorp, professor at Bournemouth University, who has worked as a consultant for the UK Intellectual Property Office, the European Patent Office and WIPO on IP education in the non-law curriculum.

• Teaching IP through distance learning, by Philip Griffith, professor at the University of Technology, Sydney, and a pioneer in delivering effective teaching through Internet distance learning.

Related Links

• WIPO E-Bookshop