UNWE is the only school for higher education in the country with a specialty “Economics of Intellectual Property”, and the “Intellectual Property” Department is the only educational – scientific body for training economists in this discipline. The Department and the “Intellectual Property” Specialty were set up in 1991. Some of the important moments of the Department history are:

• Signed agreement for cooperation between the World Intellectual Property Organization /WIPO/ and UNWE in 2000;
• The establishment of a National Intellectual Property Association on the Department’s initiative.
• The establishment in 2001 of an Information Centre at UNWE library with specialized literature on intellectual property problems – with the support of a donation from WIPO, which included more than 400 editions in the areas of economics, management and intellectual property rights, on paper and electronically.
• The establishment in 2003 of an Intellectual Property Centre, which was officially opened by the president of the Republic of Bulgaria, Mr. Georgi Parvanov; the Director General of WIPO, Dr. Kamil Idris, and the Minister of Education and Science, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Igor Damianov. The Centre was set up with the support of WIPO. An agreement was achieved for the establishment of the Centre as a branch of the World Intellectual Property Academy, in accordance with which the Academy will offer Master’s programmes for the education in Intellectual Property for distance learning.