Copyright Licensing Agency’s Annual IP Prize Launches for 2022

Since 2020, CLA has hosted an annual competition for 16-19-year-old students attending UK schools and colleges. This year CLA is launching it’s annual IP Prize with two new categories so that entrants have even more choice as to how they express their views.

We’re very proud of our 2020 and 2021 winners, both of whom submitted excellent essays on issues related to copyright and intellectual property.

Never keen to rest on our laurels, CLA has been speaking to educators in the sector – those responsible for teaching and training in the creative industries – and conversations have led to some great suggestions as to how the competition could appeal to even more learners. 

As such, we’re delighted to announce that two new forms of submission have now been added to the competition.  Entrants can choose to submit either an essay, or from this year, a podcast or video.

Entrants are invited to explore the question: ‘What does intellectual property mean to you?’

In many school and college subjects and qualifications, intellectual property (IP) will have an obvious and immediate bearing.  From visual arts, design, manufacture, engineering and creative writing – any learner who is creating, or has aspirations to create in their career, will need to understand IP.  Learners might also be creating outside of the curriculum – for social media, institution publications and events, or websites. 

We want to hear about those stories, the learner journeys, and how young people are growing to understand the perhaps unfamiliar but essential world of IP.

Julie Murray, CLA’s Education Account Manager reflects on the changes to the competition:

“The essay competitions of the last two years have seemed to find a natural home with students who have aspirations to study law, and they’ve offered up some amazing thought pieces on copyright and IP.  But obviously at the heart of IP, is creation, and we’re very pleased we can now offer the different categories so that all students who have a stake in IP can express their views in their preferred style.“

Entrants have until 30 June 2022 to submit their entries, with those judged as the top three winning a cash prize.

All details, including important terms and conditions are on the CLA website.  If you have any questions about the CLA IP Prize, please contact [email protected].