Intellectual Property Office opens applications for online degree programme

The Intellectual Property Office will begin accepting students for its second-semester online intellectual-property studies programme on Aug. 6, offering a route toward a recognised bachelor's degree in the field.

The office's International Intellectual Property Training Institute will run the programme with Korea Invention Promotion Association. Applications open at 10 a.m. on Aug. 6 and close at 4 p.m. on Aug. 18.

Classes will begin Aug. 25 and run through Dec. 7. The curriculum offers 11 courses free of charge, including an introduction to intellectual property and copyright law.

Students may take up to seven courses, worth 21 credits in total. The programme recommends that first-time students begin with three or four courses. Applicants need at least a high-school education.

Those who meet the degree requirements can receive a Bachelor of Intellectual Property degree in the name of the education minister, with graduates of four-year universities needing 48 major credits and high-school and junior-college graduates needing 140 credits.

The office plans credit exchanges with 12 universities in the second semester.

Song Seong-heon, head of the International Intellectual Property Training Institute at the Intellectual Property Office, said, "the importance of the ability to understand and use intellectual property in industrial settings continues to grow."