International Teacher Education Conference 2014 1

International Teacher Education Conference 2014
put “respect” in IP education cycle; to respect inventions and inventors is important. Corresponding lesson
practices are accumulated by school teachers cooperating our research.
The Intellectual Property Association of Japan was established in 2002 as an academic society for IP. There
are several working groups in the Association. As one of them, there is a Research Group on Human Resource
Development of IP Professionals since early stage of the academic society but is not a group of IP education for
supporting human resources. Therefore, the author established a new working group named “IP Education” with
colleagues for that purpose in 2007. The working group held research meetings in various parts of Japan and
increased members gradually. Recently the working group published a book that describes research on IP
education and typical lesson practices (Editorial Board of IP Education Working Group in Intellectual Property
Association of Japan, 2013).
Cooperative Activities with Neighboring Countries
The largest number of international students to universities in Japan is from China and is more than 60% of
the total. This is also true in the author’s university. One or more students always stay in his laboratory and they
want to learn technology education and/or IP education in Japan. Under such a situation, the author started
visiting lectures to their schools from primary school to university in China. IP is usually considered to be one of
the sensitive issues between China and Japan but the author found visiting lectures on IP with the help of
international students from China are accepted favorably. Furthermore, the author found progressive approach is
being made on IP education in China. Under a coined word “Creation-New Education”, China promotes special
education for gifted children on IP, for example, to perform a special grant to the school of their children and the
children did a good invention (JETRO, 2009). There are some points that are different from the ones in Japan
and to exchange information must be good for better IP education to each other. To have such an opportunity,
we held the International Symposium on IP Personnel Training in 2013 (http://ceba.cqu.edu.cn/xsdt/1580.jhtml).
Korea also promotes special education for gifted children on IP (Nahm, 2011). Korea established a special
education promotion law in 2011. Second special education progress comprehensive plan was issued in 2007
and Korean Intellectual Property Office has used the conventional invention classroom as the special education
for gifted children on the basis of the plan. The number of students in the special class has been rapidly
increasing and reached 3765 in 2010. There is deep connection on IP rights between Korea and Japan. The
information exchange and research on IP education exist in individual level but a systematic research on IP
education in the level of academic groups remains for future.
Conclusion
There are several international movements on IP in Asian countries. The State Intellectual Property Office of
the People's Republic of China (SIPO), the Japan Patent Office (JPO) and the Korean Intellectual Property
Office (KIPO) agreed to establish the Joint Experts Group for Automation (JEGA) during the Trilateral Policy
Dialogue Meeting in 2002. Joint Expert Group for Patent Examination (JEGPE) project was established in 2009
in order to promote patent cooperation among JPO, KIPO and SIPO. JPO, KIPO, and SIPO have agreed at the
Thirteenth Trilateral Policy Dialogue Meeting held on November 2013 to jointly establish a Trilateral IP
Cooperation Website named TRIPO (Trilateral IP Offices) that will be made available to the general public
(http://www.tripo.org/index.html). China-Japan-Korea IP symposium was held in 2012, to celebrate the 10th
anniversary of the Intellectual Property of Japan and to celebrate the academic cooperation among the
Intellectual Property of Japan, Korea Industrial Property Law Association, and China Intellectual Property Study
Group. We are trying to expand to the research activity on IP education from bi-lateral (China and Japan) to trilateral
(China, Japan, and Korea) one. The research activity should be worldwide in future, which will contribute
the global exchange of IP.
Acknowledgements
The author would like to thank the colleagues in Mie University, the core staffs of the IP Education Working
Group in the Intellectual Property Association of Japan, and the co-researchers in Chongqing University and
Inner Mongolia Normal University, all who have played an important role to proceed the research activities
described in this report.
References
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