For the sixth year in a row, Latvian schoolchildren have the opportunity to show their creativity and compete for valuable prizes in the already traditional Creative Intellectual competition organized by the Latvian Patent Office (LPO).
5th - 12th grade schoolchildren studying at general, special, and professional education institutions are invited to participate in the competition, the main task of which is to create original solutions for educating children of school age on intellectual property (IP) topics .
LPO Director Agris Batalauskis emphasizes: “It is originality that we would like to highlight in this year’s competition. We invite students to creatively use and develop this concept in their works on the theme of IP. Our goal is to encourage young people to be brave and innovative and to think about how valuable original ideas are and how important it is to protect them. And who can better tell young people about the importance of IP protection than young people!”
Last year, the competition received a record number of applications. A total of 52 teams applied for the participation in two age groups, the total number of participants having reached 150.
To take part in the competition, participants are invited to create teams according to their age groups: grades 5-8 and grades 9-12. Each team can include two to three students and a teacher, and it can be composed of students from different Latvian educational institutions.
Each team will have to develop two creative tasks related to IP and also provide the necessary answers. The tasks can be of various type, e.g., erudition tasks, games that can be created both as collages, creative works, and as multimedia and interactive solutions, which would be of interest for the same age schoolchildren.
When working on the tasks’ contents, it is advised to make use of the methodological material “A Journey to the World of Industrial Property” developed by the LPO, which covers such IP topics as intellectual property, inventions and patents, trademarks, designs, protection against counterfeiting and the importance of industrial property in business.
Applications for the participation must be submitted by 21 October by 17:00. The assessment of the submitted works will take place until 8 November, and the winners will be announced on 12 November. The winners’ awarding is planned for a gala event on 27 November at the Science and Innovation Center of Riga Technical University. At the event, there will be the opportunity to take a look at prototyping workshops and participate in master classes to learn about various innovative technological solutions.
The best three teams in each age group will get prizes, including sympathy awards. In the 5th-8th grade group, the 1st place winners will be awarded with gift cards from the Brain Games board game store; the 2nd place winners will receive instant cameras; the 3rd place winners will get portable speakers.
In the 9th-12th grade group, the 1st place winners will be awarded Samsung tablets; the 2nd place winners will get Samsung smart watches; the 3rd place winners will receive Sportland gift cards.
It should be noted that the Creative intellectual competition will also award teachers, who will receive gift cards from the Brain Games board game store, as well as sympathy awards.
The competition is being organized by the LPO in cooperation with the State Educational Content Center, the Ministry of Culture, Junior Achievement Latvia, and Latvian Performers’ and Producers’ Association. The Creative Intellectual competition will be held for the sixth year in a row. For the past years, hundreds of creative solutions were received from Latvian student teams. In 2022, the Exclusive Partners team from Aizkraukle Region Secondary School won both the 1st place in the 5th-8th grade group and the World Intellectual Property Organization’s Schoolchildren’s medal. In 2023, the team from Sigulda Primary School No 1 won in the 5th-8th grade group, while the winner in the 9th-12th grade group became the team from Jelgava Spīdola State Gymnasium.