Intellectual property education in the past

For many decades, intellectual property (IP) was the exclusive domain of a small number of specialist lawyers, who had generally acquired their IP expertise from working in IP-based companies or representing clients with IP-related problems. At best they might have had an introductory IP course during their legal studies. Such was the state of IP education until relatively recently.

On-the-job training was, therefore, necessary to supplement the limited opportunities to learn about IP offered by academic institutions. One such avenue has been national and regional IP offices (Patent Office, Trademark Office, Copyright Office), particularly those where the relevant laws require substantive examination of patent applications and/or administrative appeals. Those offices often set up internal training facilities to provide IPspecific courses for their staff, often to very specialized levels. The training was initially for primary education in IP, after which the trained staff was deployed to specific functions within the office, for further on the job training. In some countries, after several years of services at an IP office, a number of such trained staff have left to join law firms or other IP-related businesses. This means that IP training programs at IP offices have contributed to the development of IP skilled human resources by constantly supplying experienced experts to the private sector.