Inspiring innovation – intellectual property in design

The Association has been working with the Intellectual Property Office to develop this set of free resources helping teachers and students to understand the implications of IP in product design.

The resources consist of five PowerPoint classroom teaching presentations and associated materials that schools can use and adapt, in which the students develop their ideas and realise the importance of securing the intellectual property.

These can be used as a kit to allow schools to deliver this in a ‘business day’ in which students’ innovative design ideas, produced using smart and modern materials, are developed and presented and then ‘stolen’ by the presenter with the implications of not protecting their rights revealed.

The session, with groups of Key Stage 3 or 4 students, also covers marketing using famous faces, logo design and an understanding of slogans, product placement and distinctive packaging as a way of preparing their product for sale and includes:

• developing initial, original design ideas
• researching existing products and patents
• an outline of the process of designing and making a prototype
• registering a design and applying for patent
• pitfalls – not infringing existing patents or copyright; having a design idea stolen…
• bringing a product to market

Videos outlining the resources and how the business day is presented will help teachers planning to deliver this important aspect of product design.

The sessions contain a great deal of information and activities on Smart Materials that can be used independently of business days delivery if required.

What teachers said:

• “It fits in with the curriculum, it fits in with their own designs… they will have to think about what happens to their designs afterwards, so I think it really helps them with that and it links in with their own learning, especially towards their GCSEs for Product Design.”
• “Something like this that is slightly different to a normal lesson time really gets the information over… and to carry on that interest in the subject.”
• “Today in the space of a morning they’ve made probably more links than they would in a few lessons.”
• “Definitely get involved as soon as you can. It’s awesome.”

What students said:

• “I would love to do something like this again because I want to become an entrepreneur, so I think these sessions really did help me.”
• “I really enjoyed the day; I liked learning about how I can protect a business if I would set one up when I’m older and working as a team with my friends.”

The resources, including five PowerPoint-based lessons and a business day presentation, videos, worksheet and teacher notes, are all free to download. See Associated Files links below and in the resource shop.

Our thanks go to the Intellectual Property Office, Jenny Dhami and Angie Maffey and to Coundon Court and Finham Park 2 schools in Coventry for their help in developing and trialling the resource.

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