oa Intellectual property teaching as part of an engineering degree

Undergraduate teaching of engineers should prepare graduates for designing processes and making products to solve real-world problems. As such, an engineering course should enable the development of engineering knowledge, skills, imagination and experience. On the other hand, intellectual property rights cover topics such as patents, utility models and registered designs among others. These tools are granted for inventions, form and appearance of objects and can be found in every single product available to a lesser or greater extent. This paper reports on teaching aspects of intellectual property rights to undergraduate and postgraduate engineering students as part of the syllabus at a technological university in the Greek island of Crete. The courses are described in terms of goals and procedures which teach students IP rights so as to prepare them to benefit the maximum in today's knowledge-based economy.