Hobart eLearning company wins international awards for SE Asia and Africa IP training program
Hobart company Sprout Labs has won two prestigious Brandon Hall Excellence in Learning award for a training program developed with Australian Government agency IP Australia for the ASEAN region and Africa.
IP Australia is the Australian Government agency that administers intellectual property (IP) rights and legislation relating to patents, trademarks, designs and plant breeder's rights. They routinely train people from ASEAN and African countries in advanced patent examiners skills. This involved understanding cutting edge science and complex legal requirements.
The Regional Patent Examination Training program is an online system comprising virtual classrooms and interactive material and includes some face-to-face time in Australia. From their office computer, trainers based in Canberra engage directly with students – wherever they might be – to teach and guide them through the training program.
The program has been running since 2013, with participants from Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam the Philippines, Kenya and Zimbabwe. In 2015 Sprout Labs won an international tender to work with ASEAN Secretariat to further advance patent training in the region.
The program is part of the ASEAN–Australia–New Zealand Free Trade Agreement (AANZFTA). The program leads to greater international consistency in how patents are examined, which ensures that Australian innovators and inventors can be more confident their IP is protected when operating in the region.
The Brandon Hall awards are sometimes called the ‘Academy Awards’ of the learning industry. Sprout Labs and IP Australia won a Gold in the Custom Content category and a Silver in the Best Use of Blended Learning category. Other award winners include organisations such as Time Warner Cable, IBM, General Motors, World Bank Group and Xerox. All the winners can be found at Excellence in Learning Awards
For more information contact:
Dr Robin Petterd: robin@sproutlabs.com.au, 0419 101 928
