About

TIP emerged as a result of a seven year study, carried out by The International Expert Group on Biotechnology, Innovation and Intellectual Property, which identified the need for an honest, independent broker that can provide empirically-based expertise on how best to adapt intellectual property to the needs of modern society.

TIP is an independent non-profit organization that aims to foster innovation and creativity through the better use of intellectual property and alternative vehicles for managing knowledge.

Our mission is to facilitate the replacement of Old IP – the over-reliance on patents, copyrights and trade-marks – with New IP – which focuses on granting the right amount of IP and better use of it through cooperation and collaboration. We believe that this new era of IP will stimulate innovation and creativity and broaden access to discoveries.

In order to make the transition to New IP, TIP’s Expert Team, comprised of individuals from industrialized and developing countries with expertise in a variety of fields relating to innovation and creativity, builds human and social capital in the fields of knowledge governance and intellectual property management by engaging in strategic advising, training initiatives, entrepreneurship development, and network building. We maintain on-going relationships with our partners in order to ensure we leave behind a legacy of change-actors that can carry our mission forward.

We carry out our work with the following vision of intellectual property:

• Context is everything: To understand intellectual property, it is critical to appreciate the ways that people actually use it and the governmental and non-state institutions that are responsible for it.
• Intellectual property should be of benefit to all: Intellectual property is a public policy tool that can be designed to serve the objectives of all.
• One size does not fit all: Intellectual property systems should be adapted to the diversity of economic and cultural realities within communities, countries and fields of creativity.

Examples of those that benefit from our work include governments, foundations, companies, researchers, scientists, NGOs and indigenous communities. In particular, we reach out to underserved communities around the world in need of improving their understanding, use, and management of intellectual property and its alternatives. We re-invest part of our revenues in initiatives that help such communities advance their goals.