Intellectual Property & Ethics (QAA2457) EERPF

Objective:

This session focuses on the important role that intellectual property plays for creatives and will encourage them to recognise the agency they have over the work they create and the decisions they make in professional practice.

Overview: 

The focus within this task is open idea generation, pooling the expertise/wisdom of the group to create ideas that can then be evaluated and explored.

It explores the value of protecting ideas, building your reputation, cultivating relationships and leading the way for transparent and equitable working practice. This will be achieved through the following objectives:

• Support students to understand when to think about IP when innovating and developing new ideas.
• Encourage students to be aware of the legal and ethical implications within their business.
• Help students recognise the important role IP can play in developing their brand identity.
• Increase student’s awareness of the role of IP when co-creating and collaborating.
• Develop students' ability to ask questions and make informed decisions that are right for their own business.
• Provide insight and develop students' confidence to stand-by their values and ethical decisions.

Activity:

Introduction

• What is IP?  What does IP mean, why is IP important, what are legal IP rights and how do they relate to social enterprise?
• Introduce IP as a representation of creative’s ideas and values expressed in a  tangible way
• Introduce IP as agency for positive change, a way to build sustainable futures

Activity 1: Group Discussion

• What does intellectual property mean to you if anything?
• What motivates you to create or develop a new idea?
• Who or what inspires you?

Activity 2: IP and Values 

Facilitator to put students in break out rooms to discuss the following:

• Position IP within the context of the values, motivation and social enterprise identifying the interconnected way that IP works with personal beliefs, ideas and choices
• Highlight the role that IP can play to help develop professional identities, protecting financial and reputational interests
• Recap on identified values as part of values and motivation workshop and think about how this might interact with IP
• Identify any areas or elements of a pitch idea that may be protected by IP and how

Activity 3: Intellectual Property in Practice and Ethical Engagement

Group Discussion

Select a current scenario featuring questionable practice e.g. cultural appropriation within the fashion industry, unpaid employment, the exploitation of larger companies in the creative industries.

Consider the reputational, financial, ethical implications and also the roles and responsibilities of all involved.

Break-out rooms

• What real-world scenarios do you care about and why?
• Can you think of any personal examples of unethical practice? What might you do differently to work to an ethical way?

Checking out: What are your key takeaways from today’s session?

Skill Development: (short – focus on reflection; review; feedback; learning)

Learner Outcomes

• Understand what Intellectual Property (IP) is and how it intersects with ideas of ownership, rights, values, ethical practice and social enterprise; apply this knowledge to varied real life examples.
• Comprehend basic legal and moral implications of IP law in the context of business; approach these ethical dilemmas by problem solving.
• Recognise the value that individual and collective IP has in the context of social enterprise; plan how to manage IP sustainably and ethically (when co-creating and communicating) with others.
• Understand how the law is nuanced and does not always reflect creative and cultural practice; apply an informed, contextual approach to generate a number of possible solutions for creative/cultural IP cases.

Resources:

•        Powerpoint presentation