Integrating sustainable development awareness in intellectual property law education

Since 2016, education for sustainability is a strategic priority across most Universities in the UK and around the world. Higher education institutions are committed to working towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and integrating social, environmental and economic themes into the curriculum and learning and teaching materials. Intellectual property (IP) rights are a critical incentive for innovation and creativity, which in turn support the success of the majority of SDGs. As a specialized agency of the United Nations, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) contributes to the SDGs by providing concrete services to its member states, enabling them to use the IP system to drive the innovation, competitiveness and creativity needed to achieve these goals. Integrating sustainability awareness into IP law education is highly relevant to the current higher education landscape and a new topic that should have a place in the IP syllabus. This chapter will enable IP educators to consider the rationale for integrating an awareness of sustainability and the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals into postgraduate Masters level LLM intellectual property law teaching, learning and assessment via a learning activity involving the WIPO IP Innovation Index 2021 with a focus on UN Sustainable Development Goal 9 Innovation, Industry and Infrastructure.