Abstract
The article discusses the challenges of teaching Intellectual Property (IP) in the University of Campinas (Unicamp, Brazil), with reference to the data obtained from a large survey and analysis of the disciplines offered in the undergraduate, graduate and university extension courses, and interviews with professors responsible for these courses and disciplines. The results indicate that although Unicamp has a prominent role in promoting innovation, occupying the second position in the ranking of the largest depositors of patent applications in Brazil, the teaching of the subject in the institution still relies on individual initiatives of the professors themselves, being exclusively dependent on the interest and skills of these individuals rather than a more general orientation of the university. The discussion closes with some observations as to how education and training in IP could be improved, in an attempt to convert them into instruments conducive to the promotion of innovation within nations.
Highlights
It has been roundly accepted that knowledge and innovation play an important role in economic growth. It is not just the domain of knowledge that distinguishes one nation from another, but mainly, the way that knowledge is perceived, disseminated and, the manner in which the results are fed back into society.What we have found is that the broad and varied development of technical and scientific knowledge, and its transformation into products, processes, goods and services, in general, presents itself as a central factor for nations to participate in the rapid displacement of the frontier of technology and innovation, at the risk of being just “imitators” or “modernizers”
There is a growing body of economic literature that seeks to understand the dynamic effects of the protection of intellectual property rights (IPRs), as well as the relationship of these rights to competition, their importance in international technology transactions and how these rights relate to the overall economic development strategies of nations (Maskus, 2008)
In the case of Brazil, Paula Filho and Souza (2009) conducted a study in which they analyzed abstracts of theses and dissertations available in the database of the Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES) and found that 55% of academic production in Intellectual Property (IP) was concentrated in the broad area of Applied Social Sciences
Summary
It has been roundly accepted that knowledge and innovation play an important role in economic growth. In the case of Unicamp it is no different, and a further element may even be added to this picture which is the lack of a more general orientation from the university that would permit the teaching, research and activities focused on intellectual property to be mutually coherent, i.e., for them to be included in a broader policy, even going so far as to promote a concerned interest in course content and in the profile of the faculty members involved in IP and related disciplines It can be seen, from the previous discussions, that there has been a time lag between the understanding of what have currently been considered the driving elements of a Knowledge-based Society, and actual discussions about the process of innovation and policies aimed at its promotion. What follows are the main results of the research, as well as the methodological procedures, prior to that, a brief description of Unicamp is presented
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