Intellectual Property Training and Education: A Development Perspective

International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development
Issue Paper No. 31 (2010)
Co-authored with Jeremy de Beer

Since the TRIPS Agreement, IP training and education activities have become more prominent. The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO)'s Development Agenda and other IP reform efforts have included recommendations for IP education. WIPO and the WIPO Academy are prominent actors in IP education, engaging a wide audience in developing countries. WIPO has been particularly influential in Nigeria, but by focusing mainly on piracy and the enforcement concerns of rights holders, training and education activities have yet to facilitate more context-sensitive discourse about broader socio-economic and cultural implications of IP issues and human development. Most or all IP education activities currently fail to integrate a development dimension, despite its centrality in the WIPO DA. The DA provides an opportunity to re-evaluate the design and delivery of IP training and education, drawing on emerging best practices in development-oriented IP courses. The authors conclude by exploring next steps for improving training and education on IP and development.

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