Guidance

IP in education

Updated 9 November 2022

IP Education Framework

The IP education framework is a tool for teachers to introduce IP concepts into lessons for UK curricula from primary to higher education. It contains a series of age appropriate competency statements, linked to Art and Design, Music, Science, Design and Technology, Computing and PSHE.

The framework can help embed teaching about creativity, invention, and innovation across curricula. Each group of competency statements links to a supporting resource to introduce IP concepts in everyday lessons. The resources, developed by the Intellectual Property Office and partners, are available free of charge.

Universities and Further Education

• IP Tutor is an online tool covering the basics of IP. It comprises modules for Law, Business and Accounting, STEM, Creatives and Humanities and a library of resources for use in further education and higher education

• IP Tutor Plus follows on from IP Tutor and helps lecturers to engage with students on IP, covering commercialisation and the relevance and importance of IP to students’ courses and future careers

• IP for Research provides a series of tools for researchers to improve their knowledge of IP and research commercialisation

• The Lambert Toolkit provides a set of collaboration agreements which help facilitate contract negotiations between universities and businesses

• The Intellectual Asset Management Guide helps university management to make the most out of their IP portfolio, which is important to a sound business strategy

• University case studies and business case studies demonstrate the relevance and importance of IP in education, research and business

• The Future Innovators Toolkit (FIT) is a comprehensive resource pack is to help teachers get their A Level (level 3) STEM students thinking about IP, how to protect it and where it fits in their future careers

Primary and Secondary

• The Cracking Ideas website provides free education resources, competitions, and lesson plans to help teachers and their pupils to discover intellectual property (IP). They include clearly structured, curriculum-linked activities to help you explain and explore IP across a range of subjects. The Cracking Ideas website sits amongst the IPO’s online support tools. The resources are free to access and use once registered

• Wallace & Gromit’s Cracking Ideas - Cracking Ideas provides curriculum-led activities that get children engaged with design and the importance of protecting intellectual property. Age-appropriate activities inspire children aged 4-7 and 8-11 to come up with their own inventions which they can enter our nationwide competition

• The Think Kit resource pack is specifically designed to help teachers of GCSE or NQ Business Studies, Media Studies, Design Technology or Music get students thinking about innovation and how they can protect and benefit from their ideas

• The Game is on! is a series of short animated films that put copyright and creativity under the magnifying glass of Sherlock Holmes, providing a unique, research-led and open access resource for school-aged learners and other creative users of copyright. Drawing inspiration from well-known copyright and public domain work, as well as recent copyright litigation, these films provide a springboard for exploring key principles and ideas underpinning copyright law, creativity, and the limits of lawful appropriation and reuse. The resources were developed by Copyright User

• Nancy & the Meerkats – a radio series to engage pupils with the concept of intellectual property (IP). Aimed at primary education, the resource guides pupils through the process of setting up a band and recording and releasing a song, which is promoted and performed live on tour

• Inside STEM films are series of film that look at the role of intellectual property in new technologies including data informatics and 3D printing