Module 1 — IP basics for teaching

Workshop 2 — Bringing IP Alive

TRAINER NOTES

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IP IN EDUCATION

INTELLECTUAL PROPERTYTeacher Training Pack

Module 1 Workshop 2 Bringing IP Alive

Objectives • To explore the links between creativity, innovation and entrepre-neurship, and IP.

• To apply knowledge of IP basics to everyday educational objects.

Materials • The LEGO story worksheet (1 copy per trainee). • The LEGO story video. • The LEGO story text. • A LEGO brick.

Workshop outline Stage Activity Materials1 Ice breaker Thinking outside the

box — small groups.LEGO blocks.

2 IP at work The LEGO story —small group feedback, whole group feedback.

Story text,worksheet.

3 IP around us IP and the world of teaching —small group poster making, gallery walk feedback.

Classroom realia: laptop, projector, in-teractive whiteboard, mobile phone, board game, DVD, etc.,flip charts and pens.

Activity notes 1 Ice breaker • Show a LEGO brick. Ask teachers to brainstorm in pairs or small

groups unusual uses for LEGO bricks. .............• Feedback: the ability to ‘think outside the box’ — divergent .............

thinking — is a core skill for all creators, innovators and entrepre-neurs.

2 IP at work • This stage highlights the role that IP plays in supporting creativity,

innovation and entrepreneurship.• Trainees work with a copy of the worksheet. They do the story task.• Show the video or read the LEGO story.• Afterwards, work in small groups with the worksheets to do the

task. Teachers reflect on the different skills and processes involved in creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship.

• They then apply their knowledge from the Introduction to IP ...........session and analyse how the IP tools apply to the LEGO Group.

See notes below on IP and the LEGO Group.

Trainers may wish to base this workshop around a com-pany other than LEGO and adapt the activities and worksheets ac-cordingly

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Module 1 Workshop 2 Bringing IP Alive

Activity notes

Stage 2Feedback

3 IP around us • Teachers work in small groups to brainstorm ideas and produce a

mind map / poster showing how the different IP tools apply to a piece of educational equipment.

• Use the presentation to revise the four main IP tools: trade marks, designs, patents and copyright.

• Each group chooses a different piece of equipment and creates a poster.

• They display posters and do a gallery walk with feedback.

Notes on IP and LEGOThe LEGO Group uses all kinds of IP rights, in accordance with the pertinent law in the country in question. However, in general terms the four areas of IP tools are listed here.• The LEGO brick was patented: the functionality of the tubes clutch-

ing with the knobs.• Other LEGO toys and products have been patented. For example,

a small ice machine, which actually had an intricate pulling mech-anism.

• The LEGO name is protected as a figurative trade mark and as a word mark in a huge amount of countries under many classes of goods and services, not only for toys. Also, for clothes, for example. Bags, clothes, decorations on houses, little animals, etc. have been protected with design protection.

• Manuals, building instructions, stories are considered copyright of the LEGO Group.

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Module 1 Workshop 2 Bringing IP Alive

This is a story about being innovative, crea-tive and moving on although things are not always easy. You may not succeed at first, but if you persevere, are strong and you believe in your idea, something good may come of it.

The story starts in a farming town in the north of Denmark. It’s about a poor car-penter who used to repair broken furniture but he did not earn enough money to feed himself, his wife and four sons. One day he had to close his business because there were no more customers. He looked at his lively young sons and he thought, ‘OK, at least I know about wood and I’m a good carpenter. I know what I can do!’ And he started making wooden toys.

The carpenter used the resources he already had at hand and came up with something new. He had to feed his family so he start-ed making toys. People liked them and he started driving around to small towns nearby selling them. He did not make a lot of money, but he was able to buy food for his growing boys.

Soon his older son started helping him to make the toys. The boy thought he was very clever and one day before Christmas he said to his father, “Daddy, daddy I have made an invention. We are not going to coat the toys with three layers of lacquer anymore, we are now coating with two because then we can save money.”

His father looked at him very sternly and said, “No! We only make the highest quality toys. Unpack every single toy you have al-ready packed and redo the lacquer. We make toys from hand-picked wood and this is what we are going to do forever. Only the best is good enough for children when they play.”

The carpenter started driving further away to other towns to see if he could sell his toys. He believed that they were better than any of the others he saw, and he realised that he needed a name to help them stand out and to distin-guish them from others. One evening he was playing around with words and he put together the words ‘playing well’ in Danish and came up with the word lego. It sounded good in Dan-ish and he did not know that in Latin his new word means ‘putting things together’.

Now his toys had a name and he started sell-ing them to more shops. Soon he even started to sell them in neighbouring countries such as Germany and England. After the Second World War, the carpenter and his oldest son started to look for new opportunities. They knew they had to keep improving if they want-ed the best quality toys for children and they understood that they needed to keep an eye on new materials and possibilities.

The son went to a fair in Copenhagen. One evening he called his father and said excited-ly, “I have seen that they are starting to make these moulding machines for plastic”.

They had heard about plastic because it had started to become very big during the Second World War.

“I think we should buy this moulding machine and start making plastic toys,” the son told the father.“You have something going there, how much does it cost?”“Three thousand Danish kroner.”“That’s exactly the last amount of money we have in our bank account ... but buy it. I believe in you. Let’s do it,” the carpenter told his son.

The LEGO story

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Module 1 Workshop 2 Bringing IP Alive

The son went back home with the plastic moulding machine and they started trying it out and made some small plastic bricks. They liked them but they weren’t very stable when they built something. After looking at the bricks again and again, they had an idea. They put some studs on top and tubes on the inside of the brick so they fitted together and they could use them to build bigger constructions..

The two men were very excited about their new invention, but they knew they had to keep an open mind, so they went to a lot of fairs and sought out people who knew about the things they did not know. At one fair they talked to a guy who was a legal advisor and an engineer. “You have to make a patent out of this,” he advised them.They looked at each other and said, “We don’t have that much money.”“Do it and do it worldwide because this is going to be big. I think you are going to be big,” he replied.

The father and son thought hard before making their decision, “We’ll use all our money and buy a patent for all over the world,” they decided.

And they did. They took out a patent for building bricks, for LEGO bricks.

Soon they started selling not just the bricks, but LEGO system boxes. They were getting really big. And they decided to protect the brand, the LEGO name and the logo all over the world.

LEGO is actually one of the brands that has the broadest protection — in more than 125 countries. When you protect your IP in that many countries, you are really big. It costs a lot of money every year because not only do you have to file, but you also have to renew your protection for trade marks, designs and patents. You file the registra-tion application and then you have to pay to keep it going, which means that every year you have to consider whether you want to keep it going and pay new fees worldwide. The carpenter and his son kept on renewing their IP protection.

This story is about staying true to your vision. It’s about believing that only the best is good enough. LEGO nowadays uses the most expensive plastic because they decid-ed only to use material that will last for gen-erations without losing colour or breaking. You know this if you’ve ever stepped on a LEGO brick — it hurts but it doesn’t break!

To sum up, this is a story about staying true to what you want to do. If you want to provide quality, stay true to that and believe that only the best is good enough. Use your name strongly, protect your innovation and go for it.

The LEGO story

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Module 1 Workshop 2 Bringing IP Alive

The LEGO Story

Before the storyWhy do you think LEGO is so successful?

During the story Make notes about parts of the story that show:

CREATIVITY INNOVATION ENTREPRENEURSHIP

AfterwardsMake notes about LEGO and IP

What is protected? Extra informationPatent

Design

Trade mark

Copyright

Module 1 Workshop 2Worksheet The LEGO story

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