17 | 01 | 2019
Intellectual Property Day for Children and Youth Held in Velika Gorica, on 10 December 2018
The fourth event in a row titled Intellectual Property Day for Children and Youth was held in Velika Gorica at the Public Open School, on 10 December 2018 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. under the motto Be Creative, Be Innovative, Be a Giant/BUDI DIV.
Children and youngsters participated in an interactive education about intellectual property and its managing, which was conceived in cooperation between the State Intellectual Property Office of the Republic of Croatia (SIPO) and the European Union Intellectual Property Office o (EUIPO), sponsored by the National Coordination for the Enforcement of Intellectual Property Rights.
Approximately 900 children and youngsters from primary and secondary schools in Velika Gorica attended the event, accompanied by teachers and professors.
The cartoons on intellectual property titled “Mia and Arts” were seen by 300 first to fourth graders from primary schools, Novo Čiče, Vukovina, Velika Mlaka Šćitarjevo, Nikola Hribar, E. Kumičić, J. Habdelić, E. Kvaternik, accompanied by their teachers. There were 60 primary schoolchildren who took part in interactive workshops held after the cartoons, expressing their creativity and innovativeness through games and practical work thus gaining more detailed knowledge of the topics like copyright, patents and trademarks.
Within the programme for senior primary school grades titled “I Have an Idea”, school children of the 5th, the 6th, the 7th and the 8th grade from primary schools, Novo Čiče, Nikola Hribar, E. Kumičić, J. Habdelić, E. Kvaternik, were conducted through short movies, sketches and interesting facts from the domain of intellectual property by the programme author, Lara Antić Prskalo. In the workshops to follow, attended by 70 senior primary school graders, the Customs employee used examples and samples of counterfeits seized by employees of the Customs of the Republic of Croatia to show the method of recognising counterfeits, whereas the SIPO employees taught the schoolchildren about copyright basics via online quizzes and the manner of how to recognise forms of intellectual property – patents, trademarks and industrial design – in everyday life.
The programme intended for secondary school graders was attended by approximately 250 schoolchildren from secondary schools in Velika Gorica: the Gymnasium, the School of Economics, the Vocational and the Aviation High School in Velika Gorica. After the film by Milan Majerović Stilinović about young creatives and innovators, schoolchildren participated in the public discussion with Hrvoje Prskalo, a music producer, and Ljubo Zdjelarević, a film producer, who shared their experience in creative work and in generating creative contents as well as their commercialisation. Over 50 secondary schoolchildren participated in the workshops intended for distinguishing and adequate applying of various intellectual property rights, taught by the SIPO employees via online quizzes; they also learned about copyright basics and challenges with using copyright works available on the Internet, and the Customs employee used examples and samples of counterfeits seized by employees of the Customs of the Republic of Croatia to show the method of recognising counterfeits.
We hope to have succeeded in encouraging creative and innovative spirit with schoolchildren, to have explained the role and the potentials of intellectual property protection and the importance of respecting other people’s rights to them. We would also very much like for many of them to enter the competition for primary and secondary schoolchildren titled “Original Is Always Better” open until 18 March 2019.
We express our sincere thanks to the City of Velika Gorica for its support in conducting the manifestation, in letting us use the premises of the Public Open School for this event and in assisting to us with organising visits by primary and secondary schoolchildren from Velika Gorica.
We express our sincere thanks to school masters as well, and to teachers and professors of the City of Velika Gorica who recognised this project and enabled their schoolchildren to take part in it; we hope for further cooperation in implementing forthcoming manifestations within the Intellectual Property Day for Children and Youth planned to be conducted further on.