World Intellectual Property Day 2010

As I did last year, I celebrated World IP Day by visiting Tynewater Primary School in Midlothian, just outside Edinburgh. Before Easter I met with Primary 2 (see University of Edinburgh news report) and yesterday I met with Primary 7. This group of talented 11 year olds embraced with ease the concepts of innovation and creativity and the concerns that can arise over IP's power to control technology.

From the inevitable starting point of awareness of "internet and movie piracy", I asked groups of students to develop their own new way of "Linking the World" - this year's WIPO theme. After an introduction from me which included the post through to books about aliens loving under pants (if you are a parent you will understand), 10 minutes of work produced:

-a flip watch on which you could talk to astronauts
-headphones through which (if you turned them on and accepted the "call"), a caller could read your mind
-a holographic phone
-massive speakers to be located in each country from which all other countries could hear discussion in that country - unless they were excluded, for example if there was concern about spies.

I then asked students if they would be willing to share their innovation. The students themselves raised (often using exactly these terms) questions of fairness, reward of investors, payment, terms for paying suppliers, manufacturing costs, raising a court action, network effects, alternative business models, the need for reward and the need to encourage future innovation and responsibility.

There was also deeper discussion about varying royalty regimes for schools and supermarkets, different attitudes to sharing technology for entertainment, education or medical emergency, sharing profits with charities and whether or not companies should be responsible for meeting demands for access to essential technologies - or should it be for governments.

An inspiring morning - many thanks to all involved. I suspect that this group of students contains future innovators, managers, engineers, lawyers and accountants. I also suspect that discussion as to the proper place of IP in society and innovation, in Scotland and elsewhere, will run and run.