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From 2012.igem.org

Upon realizing that lack of intellectual property knowledge may hinder the progress of iGEM teams, we decided to investigate further into this issue. First, we created a comprehensive survey to gauge the amount of interest and experience that members of the iGEM community may have concerning IP. The survey inquired surveyees about whether they would like to learn more about IP, their current level of IP knowledge, the level they desired to reach, and their personal experiences, if applicable. We also included questions asking about how they would like the information presented, if a guide was to be made. The survey was sent out to iGEM to be put on their community page and to the faculty advisors of every iGEM team participating in the 2012 competition. Faculty advisors, graduate student advisors, and undergraduate student members were all encouraged to participate, giving us a diverse sample to tap into.

The response we received was staggering, with a total of 326 responses at the time of this writing. The results provided valuable insight and showed that an overwhelming majority of survey-takers desired to learn more about IP. An unexpected amount of people have expressed great interest in an intuitive guide relevant to the iGEM competition.

Below, we have analyzed and summarized the results of our survey.