The Intellectual Property Institute (IPI), or IP Institute, is a British non-profit making organisation with the mission of promoting "awareness and understanding of intellectual property law". The Institute has a thirty year history of intellectual property and economics research. The current director of the Institute is Professor Johanna Gibson who was appointed April 2010.
In 1982 Hugh Brett wrote[1] that the “primary objective of the Institute will be to provide the facilities for research into the relevance and reform of intellectual property law. It is not possible to meet the needs of industry and the demands of innovation without a proper research centre. West Germany, for example, has the famous Max Planck Institute in Munich, with some 50,000 books, and a budget of over one million pounds per year, largely provided by government. A beginning has to be made……”
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The idea of establishing a research body concerned with intellectual property law started to take shape in the late ‘70s. It was around this time that Hugh Brett, a practising solicitor, who had failed to persuade his previous employers that copyright, patents and trade marks were important business legal rights, decided to establish a journal dedicated to intellectual property law. It was to be called the European Intellectual Property Review (EIPR).
Major publishers were unwilling to accept that intellectual property was an important and growing legal subject, so the journal was first published from Hugh’s bedroom. However, the number of lawyers who subscribed to the EIPR soon proved the sceptics wrong. There had now become recognition among practising lawyers that IP rights were not the sole preserve of patent attorneys, trade mark agents and a few specialised lawyers. One copyright textbook had, for example, stated that specialised IP lawyers could be counted “on the fingers of one hand”.
Interest in the subject was growing, fuelled by the UK’s entry into the Common Market. Many early cases in the ECJ were IP cases. The European Commission identified early that if there were to be a true Common Market then harmonised IP laws throughout the Market would be necessary. Attention was starting to focus particularly on the common law aspects of IP harmonisation, since it was perceived that the development of an IP regime across Europe was being dominated by civil law thinking emanating from the Max Planck Institute in Munich (under the energetic direction of Prof. Frederick Beier and Prof. Eugen Ulmer). Ironically, it was at the Max Planck Institute in Munich, in 1980, during a conference of the British/German Jurists Association (organised by Jack Black and Prof. Ulmer) at the Max Planck Institute, that the idea to form a UK institute finally materialised. Michael Flint, a senior partner at Denton Hall, Hugh Laddie and Robin Jacob (leading barristers at the time) Professor Bill Cornish, Professor Gerald Dworkin, Bryan Harris and Hugh Brett were among those who had gathered to discuss comparative copyright / authors’ rights. During the conference, a group from the UK delegation chatted in the gardens nearby. They were appalled that there was no institute to compare with Max Planck in the common law countries, and concerned at the lack of a common law voice in the corridors of Brussels. They resolved to take action to establish what would be called the Common Law Institute of Intellectual Property (CLIP).
The first CLIP offices were in Hugh Brett’s offices at 25 Beaumont Street, Oxford. Shortly thereafter, it was decided that CLIP would be better placed if moved to London, and Michael Flint hosted meetings at Denton Hall’s offices in Gray's Inn. Through Michael Flint’s enthusiasm and contacts, CLIP began to secure funding from industry and the legal profession. The first meeting, when the idea of creating the Institute was exposed to a larger audience, was also held in Denton Hall’s offices in Gray’s Inn. Intellectual property specialists from the bench, notably Mr. Justice Whitford, barristers and solicitors attended.
On 15th March 1982 in the Rotunda Room of the UK Patent Office the first meeting of the Foundation Committee of CLIP was held. The Chairman for the meeting was Lord Scarman, the Institute’s first President. CLIP’s Council included: Edward Armitage, Jack Black, Hugh Brett, Bill Cornish, Gerald Dworkin, Michael Flint, Geoffrey Hobbs, James Lahore, Brian Norris and Stephen Stewart QC. These were the prime founders of the Institute. Michael Flint was initially the Chairman of the Foundation Committee but as he had to spend much of 1982 in Los Angeles, the chair was passed to Stephen Stewart who had recently retired from being the Director of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
Thanks to financial support from the American film industry, the Institute enjoyed premises at the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, at Russell Square. Indeed, the establishment of CLIP owed much to Michael Flint’s enthusiasm and his determination to secure funding from industry and the legal profession.
The Institute’s first Director was Ivor Davies, formerly the Comptroller of Patents at the UK Patent Office. The first public event organised by the Institute was a conference at the Waldorf Hotel, London, on the subject of piracy. Thanks to Brian Norris, the conference was sponsored by the Motion Picture Association of America. Lord Scarman chaired it and gave the keynote speech. The national newspapers, as well as legal journals, covered the event. It was at this conference that the Institute could be said to have been launched. Prof. Beier, then Director of the Max Planck came and welcomed the arrival of their “Little Sister”.
In April 1991 John Adams, then Professor of Commercial Law at the University of Kent, but latterly Professor of Intellectual Property Law at Sheffield University, took over as Director of the Institute. In 1994 the Institute changed its name to the Intellectual Property Institute (IPI), under the chairmanship of Sir Geoffrey Pattie, formerly a minister at the DTI. During this time, Ron Coleman, formerly Chief Engineer and Scientist at the DTI, helped to manage the Institute, remaining in post until John Reid, previously head of Patents at Unilever, became General Secretary in early 1997. The Institute had by this time moved to Southampton Buildings and the two Johns managed the Institute jointly until 2000 (having moved again to Outer Temple, Strand in 1999). Sir Robin Jacob had become a High Court Judge and the Institute’s President, succeeding Lord Scarman.
From 1999 to 2011, Ian Harvey, the Chief Executive of BTG plc, took over as Chairman of the Board. In May 2000, Paul Leonard was appointed as the Institute’s first full time Director, combining roles of Director and Secretary General previously held by John Adams and John Reid. Between 2001 and 2010, the Institute was located at 36 Great Russell Street.
In April 2010, the Institute moved, as part of a strategic collaboration with Queen Mary, University of London, through the Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute (QMIPRI) within the Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS). The Institute to be co-located with the Centre of Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary. It is therefore presently based in Lincoln's Inn Fields. At the same time, Professor Johanna Gibson became the director of the Institute.
The Intellectual Property Institute as a Research Council which is responsible for setting the Institute's research agenda and a Board which is responsible for its management. The current Chair of the Board is Alison Brimelow, former President of the European Patent Office and Comptroller of the UK Patent Office who was appointed in April 2011.