LEARN-IP – Intellectual Property Rights and Geographical Identification Training for Cultural Heritage and Cultural Tourism Erasmus Project

Project Title

LEARN-IP – Intellectual Property Rights and Geographical Identification Training for Cultural Heritage and Cultural Tourism

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Entrepreneurial learning – entrepreneurship education; Cooperation between educational institutions and business

Project Summary

Discussion of Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) are going on all over Europe in the cultural sector, specifically when European products and services are copied by Asian and Chinese enterprises and thrown on the international market in cheap quality and without respecting their unique history. There are numerous bad examples of high-quality and centuries-old handicrafts which are sold off in cheap editions to thousands as rough copies.
So far, IPR generation has hardly been included in the curricula of formal cultural heritage and tourism education, simply because it is an extremely complex subject that many trainers and learners shy away from. In the professional world very often there is also a financial issue, because legal advice for IPR is very expensive and can hardly be covered by smaller institutions. This is all the more regrettable because IPR can not only protect rights, but can also be used to develop new areas of business for those involved.
Protection and enforcement of IP are crucial for the EU’s ability to stimulate innovation and to compete in the global economy. IPRs such as patents, trademarks, designs, copyrights or geographical indications enable European inventors, creators and businesses in cultural heritage as well as in cultural tourism to prevent unauthorized exploitation of their creations, and in return to get compensation for their investment. IPRs also offer guarantees to users, buyers and visitors to identify the origin of products and services.

IP information is spread in different legal frameworks, which makes it extremely difficult for actors of the cultural heritage and cultural tourism sector to get the right access – simply because they are not familiar with legal terms and procedures. Additionally, not all information is available online and the assessment and interpretation of regulations is even difficult for experts.

However, European right-holders and asset owners need access to effective ways of protecting their values internationally for growth and competitiveness to avoid that the economic and social potential of IPRs for Europe gets lost. They need skills to identify, apply and valorise it. When their ideas, brands and products are pirated and counterfeited, EU expertise and jobs are affected.

LEARN-IP is implemented by 7 EU partners with expertise in vocational training, IPR, cultural heritage, cultural tourism, and digital technologies. They develop an online training programme which supports heritage site managers and cultural tourism actors with the effective use of digital technologies to check for compliance with IP regulations. The training programme will raise awareness of the many IP regulations to check their relevance for products and services. The Open Source training will provide transparency in a field which is currently for our target groups a no man’s land. The training will also show when professional help is recommended.

New technologies in LEARN-IP will act as drivers of knowledge in IPR education and practices. The training will act as an online “guided tour” through IPR regulations and will indicate what can be done to legally protect unique EU property, expertise and knowledge. The online teaching tool as an Open Source tool will allow to check what has to be considered in order to make the best of IPR. Additionally, LEARN-IP will prepare the training in a way that it can be included easily in existing heritage and tourism formal education. The following Intellectual Outputs will be generated:

IO1: LEARN-IP Modular Training Course
IO2: LEARN-IP e-learning platform
IO3: LEARN-IP Guidelines / handbook for training courses

The main target groups are cultural, religious and creative tourism professionals, cultural workers and cultural / religious heritage managers. During project implementation training of up to 400 of them is expected.

The secondary target group are training providers who will offer the training in the future. During project implementation we expect to reach up to 5 in each country with access to estimated 2000 potential learners.

IP is a truly European topic (especially in the light of the newly established Unified European Patent regulations) in order to fight IP piracy specifically from Asian and Chinese markets. No EU member state alone will be able to win this fight. Meanwhile there are European instruments to protect European products and services, but our heritage managers and cultural tourism providers have to learn how to handle them appropriately.

LEARN-IP is in line with the Guidance on the Directive on the enforcement of IPR of the European Commission, which clearly identified the importance of IPR as a European topic: “In a world where EU companies are increasingly competing on innovation, creativity and quality, intellectual property (‘IP’) is a powerful tool for growing the competitiveness of all companies.” (2017).

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 295856 Eur

Project Coordinator

KULTUR UND ARBEIT EV & Country: DE

Project Partners

• ASOCIATIA PENTRU TURISM BUCOVINA
• INI-Novation Bulgaria OOD
• Sociedad Regional de Educación, Cultura y Deporte
• Tergau & Walkenhorst Patentanwälte
• Orthodox Church of Greece
• MACEDONIAN ENTERPRISE DEVELOPMENT FOUNDATION SKOPJE