INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PROTECTION

Job Task Analysis

Executive Summary

Background

This research report is a product of the Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection (ACAPP) at Michigan State University. This report describes the development, implementation, and results of a task-oriented job analysis conducted to evaluate the work tasks performed by intellectual property protection professionals. The findings from this study have been used to design IP House’s IP Certification, Certified Trade and Intellectual Property Specialist (CTIPS).

Job Tasks Analysis

This job analysis uses a task-oriented approach to investigate the frequency and importance of core job tasks in the field of intellectual property protection. The job analysis was conducted in three stages:

Generate

Subject matter experts (SMEs) in the field of intellectual property protection generated a list of core job tasks that are likely to be the most important for a range of jobs in the field of intellectual property protection.

Review

A review of the generated tasks was conducted to ensure their comprehensiveness and to remove redundancies.

Survey

A sample of 302 IP protection professionals rated the tasks in terms of both importance and the frequency of completing each task. The sample was also surveyed to investigate their top knowledge areas.

Key Results

Job Task Topics

Overall, job tasks related to Investigations received the highest importance and frequency ratings, followed by Proactive Protection, Illicit Trade, Enforcement, and IP Overview. All major topics had averages above 3.0 on the 5-point scale, indicating that all topic areas were considered at least moderately important.
Overall, importance and frequency ratings were very highly correlated (r = .99), indicating that tasks completed more frequency were also more important (and vice versa).

Job Tasks

Among specific tasks, the most important included defining IP and its types, understanding the role of the internet in illicit trade, and recognizing various types of illicit trade and their consequences.
Other specific tasks rated as highly important focused on public-private collaboration efforts to protect IP (4.22), methods of disrupting illicit activities (4.20), and responsibilities of intermediary services in protecting IP (4.19).
By contrast, the lowest rated tasks were related to understanding publicity/persona rights, patent protection, and trade secret principles. Notably, even the lowest three tasks were still rated as at least moderately important.

Knowledge Areas

In terms of knowledge areas, brand protection, anti-counterfeiting, intellectual property enforcement, and IP investigations were rated as the strongest knowledge areas among the sample.
Patent law was the lowest rated knowledge area, with the average rating falling between “somewhat knowledgeable” and “knowledgeable”. The findings from this study provided the framework for the development of the Certified Trade and Intellectual Property Specialist (CTIPS).

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