New Perspectives in Science Education

Intellectual property is directly related to the information, which contains in the objects themselves. In other words, the intellectual property is the ownership of the information, which intellectual products contain themselves, and their creators and legal possessors have full ownership of them. Developing with an unusually rapid pace, the contemporary Information Technologies and based on them Internet is a phenomenon not only in geographical but also in socio-legal sense. The Internet is changing the familiar socio-economic paradigms, and intellectual property rights are no exception to this.

The problems investigated and studied in this paper are gaining currency with a view to the increased role and importance of the Internet, which has become an integral part of look of the modern student society. The fact is that students are the largest group of our society that uses research products, services and materials especially through the Internet.

The Intellectual property is a special element of information literacy in university information environment, as to develop good skills, students must learn how to use effectively the wide variety of information products and services available in the digital space. The new information civilization including so called knowledge economy imposes new requirements for the competence and appropriate knowledge of modern young professionals, receiving their higher educational degrees.

Especially characteristic is that of professional fields related to information and social sciences, as currently these sciences are one of the most dynamically developing. Knowing the specifics of the problem and typical country trends support the formation and development of proper strategies to improve and enrich the curriculum.

The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a national survey as part of a research project for young scientists at the Ministry of Education and Science in Bulgaria and led by Assoc. Prof. Tereza Trencheva. The study gives a real notion of the knowledge level, awareness and attitude of Bulgarian students towards Intellectual Property in the Digital Environment, and outlines directions for future work. Finally are made major conclusions and recommendations.