To promote young people’s understanding of the importance of intellectual property and its protection, the Latvian Patent Office joined the project week of the Arts Education Competence Centre “Riga Design and Art Secondary School” (RDMV) within the framework of the European Authenticities Cities Network initiative “Authenticities”. During the project week, third-year RDMV students were tasked with developing board game concepts on intellectual property topics while working in teams.
The aim of the project week was to raise awareness of the importance of intellectual property, including industrial property, highlight the negative impact of counterfeiting on society, health and the economy, and foster a critical attitude towards the purchase and distribution of counterfeit goods. The content of the project was unified by the guiding theme of the Authenticities Cities initiative, “Authentic is eternal!”, emphasising the long-term value of original ideas and authentic products.
From the perspective of the Patent Office, the opportunity for young people to explore intellectual property issues in a practical way through a creative process was particularly important. Dace Liberte, Chair of the Industrial Property Board of Appeal, emphasised that developing games allowed young people to encounter a reality that every creative professional will have to face in the future: “Through games, young people had the opportunity to model the reality of the creative world, where protecting one’s work from imitation requires a certain amount of effort and where it is sometimes difficult to distinguish the counterfeit from the authentic. We are delighted by the students’ creativity and the work they invested in exploring the complex but highly relevant field of intellectual property that will be valuable to them in the future.”
A total of 83 third-year RDMV students participated in the project, working in teams of five to develop board game concepts and prepare their presentations. During the process, students defined the objectives and rules of the games, integrated intellectual property topics into gameplay, analysed the issue of counterfeiting, and assessed the intended target audience for each game.
The highest evaluation from the expert jury was awarded to the team “Sārtie marcipāni”, led by visual arts teacher Oskars Veilands, for the game “Zīmolu slazdi” (“Brand Traps”). Second and third place were awarded to the teams led by communication design teachers Andrejs Lavrinovičs and Matīss Murovskis — “Kustoņi” with the game “Gudri nieki” and “Spēļu Boss” with the game “Feikerspeis”.
Baiba Lukaševiča, Deputy Director for Creative Work at RDMV, emphasised that understanding intellectual property is an integral part of creative education. “In the creative sphere, an idea is one of the greatest values; therefore, it is important for young people to understand already during their studies what intellectual property is and why it needs to be protected,” explained B. Lukaševiča. In her view, the project week made it possible to present this topic to students in an engaging and accessible way.
The developed projects were evaluated by a jury consisting of five RDMV teachers, a representative of the Patent Office, and two board game industry experts from the company “Brain Games”.
“Young people had prepared truly original and high- quality game concepts. The results exceeded all expectations,” emphasised J. Bernāns, adding that “several of the games show commercial potential, and it would not be surprising if one of them were to appear on store shelves in the future.”