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Intellectual Property
Michelson Institute for Intellectual Property (Michelson IP) seeks to instill a widespread appreciation for, and understanding of, intellectual property (IP) fundamentals to empower students, faculty, inventors, and entrepreneurs by providing free IP resources for hundreds of colleges and universities nationwide.
A longtime advocate for addressing the lack of broad IP literacy across higher education, Dr. Gary K. Michelson created Michelson IP, an initiative that provides free IP education resources for hundreds of institutions and works alongside faculty in promoting IP awareness.
In 2018, Michelson IP partnered with the University of Southern California to debut one of the nation’s first undergraduate IP courses, The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Intellectual Property. Led by IP attorney Luke Dauchot and featuring talks by IP leaders from prominent companies and startups, the course—designed for students from all academic disciplines—was such a resounding success that it was given permanent status in the curriculum.
In 2020, more than 40,000 new subscribers accessed Michelson IP materials, growing by a double-digit percentage over the previous year.
Zoom participants in the first NACCE group call.
Launching the IP Educator in Residence Program
In September 2020, the Michelson Institute for Intellectual Property, in partnership with the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE), announced the acceptance of five institutions into a newly launched IP Educator in Residence (EIR) initiative. The inaugural group of IP EIRs includes faculty from California, Florida, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and New Mexico. These IP EIRs comprise an inclusive community of faculty who share a commitment to empowering future entrepreneurs and innovators with IP education. The selected educators support advancing IP literacy efforts across the NACCE ecosystem.
Since 2017, Michelson IP has worked with NACCE to provide a first-of-its-kind IP curriculum, now adopted at more than 70 NACCE member colleges. “NACCE has greatly enjoyed working alongside the Michelson Institute for Intellectual Property to continue to close the IP education gap,” says Dr. Rebecca Corbin, NACCE president and CEO. “We look forward to growing this community of practice among community colleges across North America.”
Strengthening University-based IP Systems
In spring 2020, Michelson IP collaborated with VentureWell to underwrite a study on the perspectives of faculty, administrators, and students on university-based IP education and policy. VentureWell is a leading nonprofit that funds and trains faculty and student innovators to create successful, socially beneficial businesses. A central takeaway from this effort is that it should be a priority for innovation-minded educators and institutions to reimagine our universities’ innovation support ecosystems to better align them with what VentureWell describes as the “ideal state” of a university-based system.
The study found common challenges within innovation ecosystems that universities must address: the lack of integration of IP in their curriculum, weak communication among university departments, and unsupportive university policies. These challenges make for poor innovation experiences, but they can be overcome. University stakeholders and departments should be open to regular communication, and partner to identify pathways and referral mechanisms that support students and faculty.
With support from Michelson IP, VentureWell conducted and published a study to identify opportunities to improve IP education and policy within university-based systems.
DR. GARY K. MICHELSON
Bracy Fuentes from Network for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) Los Angeles speaks to a class from Paramount High School during a Michelson IP pilot program in February 2020. A post-class assessment by students found that all of them believe learning about intellectual property is valuable for entrepreneurs, and that 85 percent of them were interested in learning more about IP.
