On April 27, General Director of the State Agency on Intellectual Property (AGEPI), Octavian Apostol, and Minister of Education, Corina Fusu, have signed a Cooperation Agreement with a view to promote knowledge in the field of intellectual property in educational institutions of the Republic of Moldova and to raise awareness in the younger generation on counterfeiting and piracy.

The Agreement provides the creation of a Joint Working Group which will ensure the realization of the following priority activities:

• will take the necessary steps to include the course “Introduction to Intellectual Property” in the list of optional courses recommended by the Ministry of Education published on the official website www.edu.gov.md;
• will develop the Curriculum for the optional training course for pupils in intellectual property “Introduction to Intellectual Property” (grades X-XII);
• will promote and approve the Curriculum at the National Council for Curriculum;
• will develop and edit didactic materials (manuals, guides) related to the field of intellectual property, for the training course included in the study plans and
• will organize and conduct awareness campaigns for pupils, which will cover secondary schools from different regions of the country, on the negative impact of counterfeiting and piracy on the economic and cultural development of the country, as well as on the health of population.

Minister of Education, Corina Fusu, said that signing this Agreement is extremely important as it will allow the creation of a new module in the school program, which will refer to knowledge of the field of intellectual property in educational institutions of the Republic of Moldova and carrying out of awareness actions for young generation on the phenomena of counterfeiting and piracy.

The young generation must know that intellectual property rights are protected by law and society must recognize that intellectual property is as precious as any other type of material property, said the Minister of Education.

In turn, Director General of AGEPI, Octavian Apostol, thanked the Minister of Education for receptivity and openness to AGEPI request to sign such an Agreement. We must educate young people to know what is intellectual property and how can be exploited intellectual property rights, so as to bring an added value to the economy of the Republic of Moldova, said Octavian Apostol.

The priority directions of cooperation between AGEPI and the Ministry of Education, in the context of training the younger generation in the field of intellectual property, which are an integral part of the signed Cooperation Agreement, were discussed, on March 16, during a meeting between Director General of AGEPI and the Minister of Education.

The Agreement was also signed in the execution of the provisions of the National Intellectual Property Strategy until 2020, approved by Government Decision No.880 of 22.11.2012, on training and education in the field of intellectual property via the pre-university, university and post-university system, and the provisions of the Education Development Strategy for the years 2014-2020 “Education-2020”, approved by Government Decision No.944 of 14.11.2014, on fostering creativity and innovation, including the entrepreneurship of youth, at all levels of the educational system.