At the end of April, the Design Competition for students concluded in Daugavpils University. It was organized in cooperation with the Latvian Patent Office (LPO) in the frames of the European Network of Authenticities project of the European Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO). The students were invited to create unique design concepts related to Daugavpils that would characterise the project's slogan "Authentic is Eternal".
The students were asked to design the logo of Daugavpils by means of digital graphic techniques, using texts and/or visual elements, highlighting the following aspects of the intellectual property (IP) theme "Authentic is Eternal":
- · What does authentic and real mean to you?
- · How do you perceive the authentic?
- · What is your authentic Daugavpils?
- · How to make others recognize the authentic?
The winning design was created by Baiba Briede, a 2nd-year student of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of Daugavpils University. Its white contour lines represent the Daugavpils fortress, a seagull (or a tern) and Daugava’s meanders. The fortress stands for protection, for something real, not fake. The seagull symbolizes the people who create and promote the city, whereas Daugava suggests the flow of time.
The aim of the competition is to involve the students of Daugavpils University in an information campaign to raise their IP awareness and understanding of IP value and of the negative impact of counterfeiting. Such educational activities contribute to changing the public's attitude towards the distribution and purchase of fakes. It is also important to popularize Daugavpils as an "authentic" European city that recognizes only original products of legal origin and does everything necessary to fight counterfeits and stop their distribution.
The students’ works submitted for the competition were assessed by a jury comprising representatives of Daugavpils University, the LPO, and professionals in the art and design industry.
Daugavpils is the 13th city that has been involved in the activities of the European Authenticities project. Two cities from Latvia – Liepāja and Daugavpils – have joined the Authenticities network, and they are the only ones from the Baltic region.
The European Authenticities Network is financially supported by the EUIPO. The LPO, Daugavpils City Municipality and Daugavpils University participate in the project in the framework of the signed Memorandum of Cooperation.