Korea Intellectual Property Office opens 17th WIPO training course to 34 overseas officials

The Korea Intellectual Property Office said Monday that 34 officials from 21 countries will take part in an intensive intellectual property training course in Seoul this week, the in-person phase of a joint certification programme that has now drawn 17,432 participants from 190 countries since it began in 2010.

The Advanced International Certificate Course runs from Nov. 9 to 12 at the Korea Intellectual Property Center in Gangnam, Seoul. It is the 17th edition and is co-hosted by the office, the World Intellectual Property Organization and the Korea Invention Promotion Association.

Enrolment in the remote component of the course rose 23 percent to 1,677 this year from 1,364 a year earlier. The 34 who travelled to Seoul were selected from a field that competed at a ratio of about 49 to one.

The classes concentrate on subjects meant to be put to work inside companies: the valuation of intellectual property, financing and licensing strategy, and innovation management. Instruction combines theory with case studies, and the roster of lecturers includes domestic and foreign specialists such as Park Sung-pil, dean of the KAIST Moon Soul Graduate School of Future Strategy.

"Sharing the intellectual property management strategies we have built is not simply a matter of passing on knowledge," said Song Seong-heon, head of the office's International Intellectual Property Training Institute. "Our biggest goal is for trainees to grow into intellectual property experts who can lead change in their own countries and go on to work as international intellectual property talent connecting Korea with the world."