The design and content of the course is very good. It is practical, hands on and covers imposrtant aspects of patenting. But I'm giving 4 stars because the course material is based on a book (patenting in biotechnology: a laboratory manual) which is not easily available and has no e-version. I ordered the book online at the beginning of the course and got it only now, on the last day of the course - I had no use of it. Secondly they use paid databases such as derwent and scifinder for which they do not provide access. Since I did not have access to these databases I had to work around other databases explore options in free databases to do assignments. I think the course manager needs to inform students before hand about sorce material used and paid databases. It will give student sometime to prepare and/or work around or opt out.

A really good course if you have access to all of the required content and textbook, very comprehensive. Before you start/pay definitely make sure you have access to SciFinder and possibly Derwent (although this second one isn't essential, just helpful) as well as access to the Patenting in Biotechnology textbook they describe as some of the required assignments to pass need them.

I know so much more about biotechnology patents after taking this course, really pleased with how much I have learnt. Some of the peer-reviewed assignments were poorly explained/too difficult for the wrong reasons however.

it's a good course to be introduced in the world of patents if you don't know nothing about.

Proceed with Caution

The course itself is very informative and covers very well the topics. You can say at the end of the lectures that you learned and practiced pretty much everything that is promised. Nonetheless many things are not explicit in the information about this course, such as the primary guide text is not available with the course price but it has to be bought, some of the most essential databases you see as examples are costly ones and not necessarily the University, Library or Research Institute where you can be working or studying will be available. You will listen A LOT the following words from the head professor "I TRUST YOUR HOME UNIVERSITY WILL PROVIDE YOU WITH ACCESS". This is very unpleasant especially when your last assignment depends entirely on a paid database. The course becomes complicated if you´re not studying or working in an institution with this kind of access.

This is an excellent course. It teaches various aspects of the patent search, application and more.

Easy guided course from invention to patents....

Patenting in Biotechnology is an unique and innovative course delivered with good lectures. But Professors focussed primarily on patent searching instead of discussing interplay of patenting and biotechnology. Using commercial softwares (like Derwent & Scifinder ) and a particular textbook made the course a little bit challenging for the participants from the poor developing countries like India. As a whole I enjoyed the course and learned many new things. My heartfelt thanks to all Professors and the whole Team Coursera.

This course's teachers and contents are so great. Teachers are very highly enthusiastic and serious. I think this course' has more exam than others, but because of that we study more and more spontaneously. I think I am so happy to meet this course. So if you are interested in patent or patent system, then please take this course even if you are not majored in the area of Biology.

The course follows a book (listed in the resources, which is highly recommended that you buy for cca 20€, if I remember correctly) and is tought quite well, similar to a introductory undergrad curriculum. The assignments are well designed and you need to apply a bit of time and energy to finish them (but not really that much). The biggest deficit of the course is the fact that you need access to commercial databases such as Web of Science (Derwent) and SciFinder. While several Universities and public libraries do in fact offer unlimited access to these services, you should check in advance if this is in fact true for you also - in particular, the SciFinder database in many cases has limited users (e.g., only faculty staff etc) even in public institutions.

Excelent course! I fully recommed it. Although it is very demanding and the quizzes are difficult to complete, the course provides a wide understanding of the issues related to patenting in biotechnology. I am glad to have taken the course