Abstract:

Introduction:
The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Development Agenda is dedicated to the link between intellectual property (IP) and further development of the society and the global economy. WIPO Member Stated adopted 45 recommendations in total, grouped into 6 clusters – formally constituting the WIPO Development Agenda. Cluster C: Technology Transfer, Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and Access to Knowledge (consisting of 9 recommendations) aims to distribute the benefits of innovation and information; to encourage research collaborations and scientific cooperation. Recommendation 25’s main goal is “to explore intellectual property-related policies and initiatives”. IP Policy promotes scientific research and technological development and this one of main results and activities of universities.

Presentation:
Universities and research institutions could only benefit of the set rules in one IP policy. Without a formal policy regulating the ownership and use of IP rights, the different stakeholders in a university will have no guidance on how to make decisions concerning IP. IP policy disseminated to students can only increase their knowledge in the field and familiarize them with the foundations of IP and thus enhancing their Intellectual Property Literacy (IPL).
The goal of the paper is to make an overview of the IP policies, part of the WIPO database, and analyse them, based on the different search criteria – type of institution, accompanying document, focus, language, country/ territory. An overview of the European countries, included in the database, will be made. Data on the existence of a regulatory document of all Bulgarian universities will also be displayed and then compared to the international tendency. Results of the global and the Bulgarian data will be compared.

The methodology for achieving the main objective of the study and solving the set research tasks include the following specific methods: content analysis, comparative analysis, and synthesis of the obtained information, relevant to the topic of the paper.

Conclusion:
IP Policy making is spread all over the world, progressively in Europe and gaining speed in Bulgaria. With the setting of certain rules and their introduction in the institution, whose main goal is to train students, turning them into the specialists of tomorrow, the foundations are laid for the promotion of IP as a tool to stimulate development. As a powerful tool, an IP strategy should be established systematically to identify, protect, evaluate, monitor and exploit your IP assets to ensure that you are reaping maximum benefit out of them.

Keywords:

Intellectual property, university, research institution, policy, IP policy, WIPO, Bulgaria.