Intellectual Property Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends In-house Counsel, Legal Managers and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-L-061

Before you join: Participants should have basic familiarity with commercial contracts, business operations or legal concepts gained through professional work.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Intellectual property can be a source of revenue, market differentiation and bargaining power, but only when rights are identified, owned correctly and managed before a dispute or transaction exposes weaknesses. Organisations regularly face preventable problems: product teams use unregistered brands, employees create software without clear ownership terms, confidential know-how is shared without adequate controls, or overseas expansion begins before clearance and filing decisions are made. Legal, commercial, procurement, R&D and marketing teams need a working command of IP issues to recognise risks early and involve specialist counsel with the right facts.

This course examines the principal forms of intellectual property: patents, trademarks, copyright, designs and trade secrets. Participants assess ownership, registrability, patentability, infringement exposure, licensing structures and enforcement options. They apply recognised international systems, including the TRIPS Agreement, Paris Convention priority, the Patent Cooperation Treaty and the Madrid System. The course also covers IP due diligence, contractual controls, portfolio management, valuation approaches and governance arrangements that connect legal protection with business priorities.

Teaching combines concise legal briefings with practitioner-led case analysis, document review, group decision-making and simulated commercial scenarios. Participants work through situations involving product launches, technology licensing, confidential information loss, counterfeit goods and acquisition due diligence. They leave with an IP asset register template, a protection and filing decision framework, and practical checklists for contracts, clearance and portfolio reviews. A certificate of completion is issued to participants who complete the five-day programme.

The course is suited to professionals who work with innovation, brands, content, technology, procurement, transactions or commercial contracts and need more than a basic awareness of intellectual property. It is not a substitute for jurisdiction-specific legal advice or specialist patent drafting training.

What you will be able to do

  • Classify patents, trademarks, copyright, designs and trade secrets within an IP asset inventory
  • Assess ownership, registrability and protection options using documented legal and commercial criteria
  • Conduct structured trademark clearance and patent prior-art searches using classifications and public records
  • Apply patentability, infringement and freedom-to-operate analysis to product and technology decisions
  • Draft key commercial provisions for assignments, licences, confidentiality agreements and joint-development arrangements
  • Prepare an IP due diligence review covering title, registrations, licences, disputes and encumbrances
  • Select proportionate enforcement, takedown, border-control and settlement responses to suspected infringement
  • Build an IP portfolio action plan with filing priorities, deadlines, ownership controls and governance responsibilities

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Recognise protectable IP before disclosure, launch or commercial negotiation
  • Produce clearer instructions for external IP counsel and filing agents
  • Review ownership and licence clauses with greater commercial confidence
  • Identify trademark, patent and copyright risks during product development
  • Contribute documented IP recommendations to transactions and portfolio decisions

For your organisation

  • Reduces avoidable loss of inventions, brands, content and confidential know-how
  • Improves ownership records before investment, acquisition or licensing transactions
  • Strengthens clearance controls before product launches and marketing campaigns
  • Supports disciplined filing budgets through portfolio prioritisation and docket management
  • Speeds escalation of infringement, counterfeiting and information-loss incidents

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can identify IP assets and determine the principal ownership and protection questions.

  • IP asset inventory distinguishes inventions, brands, works, designs and confidential know-how
  • Territoriality, exclusivity and limited terms determine the scope of protection
  • Ownership analysis separates creator, employer, commissioner and assignee rights
  • Registration and automatic rights compared through enforceability and evidence requirements
  • Public-domain material assessed before reuse, adaptation or commercialisation decisions
  • IP lifecycle mapped from creation and filing through renewal and expiry

Participants can distinguish patentability assessment from freedom-to-operate risk analysis.

  • Patentability tests: novelty, inventive step and industrial applicability
  • Prior-art searches use keywords, classifications, citations and family records
  • Claim construction identifies essential features, scope limitations and infringement risks
  • Patent specifications distinguish claims, description, drawings, abstract and prosecution history
  • Freedom-to-operate analysis separates product clearance from patentability assessment
  • Filing routes compared: national applications, PCT procedure and regional systems

Participants can assess trademark availability, registrability and portfolio protection requirements.

  • Trademark distinctiveness assessed against descriptiveness, genericness and acquired secondary meaning
  • Nice Classification selects goods and services classes for filing strategy
  • Clearance searches review identical marks, confusing similarity and market proximity
  • Likelihood-of-confusion analysis weighs marks, goods, consumers and trade channels
  • Use requirements, renewals and non-use cancellation managed through docket controls
  • Domain names, social handles and trade names aligned with trademark portfolios

Participants can identify copyright, design and content-use rights relevant to business activities.

  • Copyright subsistence assesses originality, fixation, authorship and protected expression
  • Exclusive rights distinguish reproduction, adaptation, communication and distribution controls
  • Fair dealing and fair use analysed under applicable statutory exceptions
  • Design registrations protect appearance, not technical function or underlying idea
  • Moral rights, performer rights and database rights identified where relevant
  • Open-source licences reviewed for attribution, copyleft and distribution obligations

Participants can establish practical controls for protecting confidential know-how and trade secrets.

  • Trade-secret status tested through secrecy, commercial value and reasonable measures
  • Information classification separates confidential know-how from general business information
  • NDAs define purpose, permitted recipients, exclusions, duration and return obligations
  • Employee onboarding and exit controls protect inventions, data and source code
  • Access controls, clean desks and audit trails support secrecy evidence
  • Misappropriation response preserves evidence, contains disclosure and instructs counsel

Participants can structure core IP rights and obligations in commercial agreements.

  • IP due diligence traces chain of title, encumbrances and licence restrictions
  • Assignment agreements specify rights transferred, territory, consideration and recordation
  • Licence structures compare exclusive, sole and non-exclusive grants
  • Field-of-use, territory and channel restrictions allocate commercial rights precisely
  • Royalty clauses define base, rates, reporting, audits and minimum commitments
  • Joint-development terms address background IP, foreground IP and improvement ownership

Participants can evaluate suspected infringement and select proportionate response options.

  • Infringement analysis compares protected subject matter against accused conduct
  • Evidence plans preserve specimens, screenshots, purchase records and chain of custody
  • Cease-and-desist letters set facts, demands, deadlines and reservation of rights
  • Forum selection considers jurisdiction, remedies, cost, timing and enforceability
  • Border measures, takedowns and platform notices target counterfeit distribution channels
  • Settlement options assess undertakings, licences, coexistence terms and damages exposure

Participants can prioritise international protection using market, filing and enforcement factors.

  • TRIPS minimum standards frame national treatment and most-favoured-nation obligations
  • Paris Convention priority supports coordinated patent, trademark and design filings
  • Madrid System filings centralise international trademark applications and portfolio changes
  • PCT procedure defers national patent filings without granting a global patent
  • Territorial filing matrix ranks jurisdictions by revenue, manufacturing and infringement exposure
  • Local counsel instructions define scope, deadlines, budget and evidence requirements

Participants can manage an IP portfolio through records, prioritisation, valuation and reporting.

  • IP register records asset type, owner, status, territory and renewal dates
  • Docketing calendars control filing, response, annuity and opposition deadlines
  • Portfolio triage ranks assets by strategic value, cost and legal strength
  • Cost, market and income approaches estimate IP value for decisions
  • Relief-from-royalty method values trademarks, brands and selected copyright assets
  • Governance dashboards report ownership gaps, renewals, disputes and licensing income

Participants can translate business priorities into a practical IP management action plan.

  • Business objectives translated into protection, publication, licensing and enforcement choices
  • Product launch reviews identify clearance, marking, copyright and trade-secret actions
  • RACI matrix assigns IP decisions among legal, R&D, marketing and procurement
  • Escalation criteria distinguish routine approvals from counsel-led risk decisions
  • Incident playbooks coordinate counterfeit, infringement and confidential-information response
  • Ninety-day action plan prioritises portfolio records, contracts and filing decisions

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. IP asset inventory template
  2. Trademark clearance checklist
  3. Patent freedom-to-operate assessment model
  4. IP due diligence checklist
  5. Licensing term-sheet template
  6. Ninety-day IP action plan

Who should attend

  • In-house Counsel — advises business teams on ownership, contracts, disputes and filing decisions
  • Legal Managers — establishes repeatable IP controls, records and escalation processes
  • R&D and Innovation Managers — protects inventions, know-how and collaborative development outputs
  • Brand and Marketing Managers — clears brands, content and campaigns before market release
  • Procurement and Commercial Managers — manages IP rights in supplier, licence and outsourcing contracts
  • Technology Transfer and Licensing Professionals — structures rights, royalties and commercialisation arrangements

Skills and tools covered

IP asset classificationTrademark clearancePatent risk analysisIP contract draftingPortfolio managementInfringement response

Tools and standards

WIPO Nice Classification, Madrid System, Patent Cooperation Treaty, TRIPS Agreement

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish legal principles, followed by case work based on product launches, brand conflicts, technology collaborations, counterfeiting and acquisition reviews. Participants examine sample IP registers, filing records, licence clauses, confidentiality terms and enforcement correspondence. Group exercises apply ownership analysis, clearance logic, due diligence and enforcement choices to realistic commercial facts. Simulations test negotiations over licensing and joint development. Each participant develops an application plan for improving IP controls in their own role.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have basic familiarity with commercial contracts, business operations or legal concepts gained through professional work. Experience in legal, R&D, technology, marketing, procurement, product management or commercial roles is appropriate. Participants should be comfortable reading contract clauses and discussing business scenarios involving products, brands, software or confidential information. No law degree, patent agent qualification, prior IP filing experience or technical science background is required. The course explains core legal concepts before applying them to decisions, documents and risk assessments.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have basic experience with commercial work, contracts, products, technology, brands or business operations. A law degree, patent qualification and prior filing experience are not required.

Bring examples of non-confidential IP questions, contracts or portfolio issues from your work if permitted by your employer. Course materials are provided, and participants should not bring confidential documents or commercially sensitive technical information.

It is designed for in-house legal professionals and business professionals working with innovation, brands, technology, content, procurement or commercial agreements. It is particularly useful for people who must spot IP issues before referring matters to specialist counsel.

This course addresses the full set of business-facing IP rights and management decisions, rather than focusing solely on patent claim drafting or general contract law. It covers the questions that arise before filing, licensing, launching, enforcing or acquiring IP assets.

Participants can use the templates and decision methods for product launches, brand reviews, supplier agreements, employee exits, technology collaborations and due diligence. The course helps participants prepare better facts, records and questions for internal decision-makers and external advisers.

Each training day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. The programme progresses from IP rights and ownership through protection, transactions, enforcement, international filing and portfolio implementation.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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