Messages from the Dean of Graduate School of Intellectual Property
By Kazuo Tanami, Dean and Professor
Our Graduate School of Intellectual Property is developing professional experts in solidarity of the faculty members. We are strongly supporting the nation’s goal of “The Intellectual Property Nation” being set by the Government. Also we are responding to the Intellectual Property Basic Act providing that “Universities, etc. shall, in light of the fact that their activities are contributing to the creation of intellectual property (IP) in the whole society, endeavor voluntary and positive to develop human resources, disseminate research and the research results.” We will continue our efforts.
Our university has a notable spirit of foundation to develop experts with theory-based practical skills who play an important role in society. Our Graduate School of IP is developing professional experts in accord with this spirit. We have created in April, 2003 the Japan-first “Faculty of Intellectual Property” for undergraduate education in our university which is still only one in Japan and then in April, 2005 our Graduate School of Intellectual Property” has opened for the first time in the western Japan. So far over 1,200 graduates from both the Faculty and the Graduate School of IP are now contributing in the society with a good reputation.
Our Graduate School has done great efforts as a professional course to create highly professional experts having superior awareness as well as deep knowledge and skills to protect and utilize IP, as is written in the university regulations. In order to perform this objective, we have recruited very strong faculty members from all the sectors of the national Government, private industries and academia and we are proud of them. All of our faculty members have profound practical knowledge and experiences in the field of IP and its applicable areas. This is vital to develop highly professional experts having both theoretical knowledge and performing skills as stated in our goal.
Our advantages features of the curriculum are versatility and flexibility to meet with our students with various backgrounds. Thus our students are able to set their individual curriculum by selecting interested class subjects among a broad range of our curricula to meet individual need to become an expert. Raising some models of experts which we are developing are; an expert working with a company to handle various phases of the intellectual property work, an expert having a qualification of “Benrishi” (a Japanese version of the patent attorney) or other national qualifications to work as a member of a patent office or a law firm, an expert belonging to a research organization to deal with inventions generated there to prosecute and utilize the IP rights, an expert to carry out the consulting work in the IP field handling various activities such as developing inventions, prosecution, licenses and many more.
Our School also provides a various opportunity to the students to experience studying and training abroad, for instance, sending a selected number of the students to the prominent CASRIP(Center for Advanced Study & Research on Intellectual Property) Summer Institute provided by School of Law, University of Washington and offering study abroad program in Asia and Europe as well for internship, all the necessary fees being paid by our university. In 2014 we have sent our students for overseas internship to the partner schools in Taiwan in the summer time and will do so in the spring time.
In return, we are accepting overseas students from our partner schools to our Summer Intensive Courses of IP in which all the lectures are given in English by native lecturers and practitioners here at our campus. The participants include over 50 students from the Taiwanese partner schools, researches from other Asian countries and Latin America, and a number of Japanese Benrish. Our School’s students are not only attending the courses but also assisting as research assistants offering various help to such overseas participants so as to exchange in learning and guiding cultural tours here in Japan.
Annually we are accepting researches of IP from Latin America on a middle or a long term basis and our faculty members are offering their respective lecture and training in the IP fields with the assistance of our students. Thus our students will enhance their ability of communication skills often by English and develop their sense of international mind.
In conclusion we are pleased to say that our professional Graduate School of IP accepts various students, irrespective of nationality, job and gender in a variety of ages from early 20s to later 60s. They are, after the graduation, contributing to a society in their respective manner as experts of IP, of which we are most proud and sincerely hope you will think about studying with us here at our Graduate School of IP, OIT.