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New times give rise to new professions. At present, Russia is on its way to technological sovereignty. This process requires new competencies, which can be obtained only in a few universities in the country. Samara National Research University has become one of those, which launched the educational program “Innovation and Intellectual Property Management”.
Nadezhda Razveikina, Candidate of Juridical Sciences, Associate Professor, Head of the Department of Social Systems and Law, told us about the project.
According to the laws of modern times
“How did the idea of this educational program come about?”
“The University’s participation in the consortium of the World-Class Research and Education Centre “Engineering of the Future” played a significant role. It implemented integrated technological projects, so the idea of establishing a patent analytics centre intended for accompanying the activities of these projects arose. But there are literally few specialists who could do this in the region. Our University has actively started developing this area. In 2022, we raised the issue of training personnel in the field of intellectual property management. The task of achieving national technological leadership, proactive import substitution, and overcoming the difficulties that have arisen with the need for import substitution requires creating, using, and protecting intellectual property results with specialized experts‘ help. In 2022, the University received the Rospatent accreditation, for conducting a preliminary information search and research on the patentability of inventions and utility models according to the international patent classification.
Two employees of Samara University passed a special exam at Rospatent and received the qualifications for conducting a preliminary patent examination of applications. There are few such universities in Russia. In 2022, there were 5 of them, and today – 9. A pool of teachers with special competencies has been formed at the University. They have received special training in the area of intellectual property management, at the Federal Institute of Industrial Property (FIIP)”.
“How many professionals with these competencies does the country need?”
“According to the FIIP estimates, about 314,000 specialists in innovation and intellectual property management are needed. And Samara University is ready to train them. In 2024, the program was launched. There are 13 students in the first stream. There are no such program in any university in the region. In the Volga Region, it is only in Nizhny Novgorod. And the need for specialists of this profile is very high”.
Understaffing
“What competencies does this program provide?”
“The program is unique because of its interdisciplinarity. It is customary to mention intellectual property in the context of the legal framework. But intellectual property also has economic value. Therefore, the program is open at Samara University’s Institute of Economics and Management. It consists of several units. In the management unit, the basics of strategic management, various project management tools, and patent portfolio management are learnt. In the unit of legal disciplines, ways of using legal instruments, for protecting innovative developments, are taught. No technological development is complete without creating the results of intellectual activity. And we teach our students how to properly protect and implement them. We teach them how to properly commercialize these results, as well”.
“Why are these competencies in demand today?”
“In the country, there is understaffing in the field of intellectual property. This has a negative impact on the innovation activities of enterprises, universities, and regions on the whole. It is also one of the key challenges to achieving the goals of the country’s technological sovereignty. Oleg Neretin, Director of FIiP, emphasizes that the digital economy cannot succeed without developing human capital, as well as without a wide range of professionals who will be involved in addressing the country’s innovation potential. This problem can be solved through training personnel. At enterprises, the number of staff of patent departments has been estimated to be only 0.05% of the total number of employees. That is, at large enterprises, it can be a maximum of 4 persons from the entire enterprise”.
Teachers-practicians
“What fields can graduates of the program apply their knowledge in?”
“Those that are aimed at producing any technological products, providing services, and striving for introducing innovations. Innovations can be various: creating a new product, improving an existing one, changing production technology, even rebranding. All these issues relate to new technical solutions or means of individualization of legal entities, and each region is aimed at increasing the gross regional product through introducing and using intellectual property results. Of course, this is the way, in which each company capitalizes its value, with taxes incoming to the regional budget to increase, and with the region’s revenues to grow. This means that innovation activity and investment attractiveness of the territories grow, as well.
Almost every company has a directorate or a department responsible for its innovative development. And these subdivisions are related to intellectual property management. In universities, these are patent departments. In the Samara Region, these competencies are in demand at large enterprises, such as, for example, the RCC “Progress”, “Aviakor – Aviation Plant”, “UEC-Kuznetsov”, and even in small technology companies. The intellectual property under development also requires competent auditing, evaluation and management. In the region, several ministries are responsible for this, and they also require such professionals.
Trademark experts are always in demand. In FIIP, the amount of work on such examinations is huge. Across the country, they have established several branches, where experts trained at the institute work. Examinations can be conducted remotely”.
“Tell us about the teaching staff”
“We have recruited teachers-practicians who are familiar with problems in the field of intellectual property firsthand. Among them, for example, Ivan Kaurov, Candidate of Technical Sciences, Head of the Department for Intellectual Property Affairs at PJSC “UEC-Kuznetsov”. Tatyana Mironova, Candidate of Technical Sciences, Associate Professor is a practicing specialist in conducting patent research at enterprises’ requests. Elena Shikhanova, Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, Associate Professor, Head of our University’s Technical and Legal Control Department. The patent attorneys are Olga Komarovskaya, Tatyana Vernigora and others”.
“What are the conditions for admission to this program?”
“The program is implemented in the area “Management”, and it is a master’s degree program. This is the second educational stage. For enrolling, you must have either a bachelor’s degree diploma or a specialist’s one. There are budget-funded seats. As the entrance test, the interview on the list of questions to be known in advance is conducted. The training lasts 2 years 6 months”.
For reference:
Acceptance of documents for the program starts on June 20, 2025. The documents can be submitted both at the University and through the “Gosuslugi” Portal.
Source: samara.aif.ru
