Intellectual property education - thinking outside the box meets colouring within the lines

Abstract

A basic understanding of intellectual property (IP) is essential for practice as a professional engineer and/or designer to ensure commercial success. Engaging students in a 'real-life' scenario or problem is one of the most effective methods of doing this. As they must first understand the problem, then seek knowledge to solve the problem, which ensures they develop their skills along the way. This paper concerns how intellectual property rights education is addressed in the HIGHER education of both lawyers and designers/engineers. It is written jointly, from the perspective of both design/engineering and law education and focuses on the pedagogical issues that are different or shared.