WIPO Academy Director visits Kutaisi International University

Hongbing Chen, Director of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Academy, visited Kutaisi International University (KIU) together with Sakpatenti Chairman Soso Giorgadze, the Kutaisi International University reported.

The delegation was hosted by KIU Executive Director and Rector Vakhtang Tsagareli. The meeting focused on the progress of the region’s only international master’s program, “Intellectual Property, Innovation and Entrepreneurship,” as well as plans to expand future cooperation.

As part of the visit, Chen met with graduates of the program and students admitted to the master’s program this year. They discussed the specifics of the educational process, methodologies and approaches, as well as employment prospects in Georgia and on the international labor market. The uniqueness of the program and the importance of close cooperation with the university were also emphasized.

Alongside KIU academic staff, the master’s program is taught, at WIPO’s initiative and with its funding, by professors from leading universities around the world. They include Enrico Bonadio, a professor at City St George’s, University of London; Alessandro Cogo, a professor at the University of Turin; professors Dominique Foray and Gaétan de Rassenfosse of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (EPFL); and Diogo Costa Cunha, a professor at the University of Strasbourg’s Centre for International Intellectual Property Studies (CEIPI), who is also visiting Kutaisi as part of the WIPO delegation.

In 2025, WIPO, KIU and Sakpatenti signed a memorandum of understanding under which the master’s program was introduced at Kutaisi International University. KIU admitted its first cohort of students to the program in 2025, while 27 students enrolled this year, including 19 Georgian citizens and eight international students.

WIPO will fully cover tuition and living expenses in Georgia for five of the international students. Graduates of the program receive a Master of Business Administration degree in Intellectual Property and Innovation Management.

The meeting at KIU was attended by University Chancellor Levan Kopaliani, along with members of the university’s administrative and academic staff and delegations from Sakpatenti and WIPO. At the end of the visit, the guests toured the university’s state-of-the-art infrastructure.