Promoting the public interest in innovation and creativity in developing countries

by providing access to intellectual property expertise

Public Interest Intellectual Property Advisors, Inc. (PIIPA) is an international nonprofit organization that provides pro bono intellectual property (IP) legal counsel to governments, businesses, indigenous peoples, and public interest organizations in developing countries that seek to promote health, agriculture, biodiversity, science, culture, and the environment.

The modern economy is a knowledge based economy which relies not only on physical property rights but also on intellectual property rights.  Intellectual property rights are exclusive rights over creations of the mind.  These include inventions, literary and artistic works, and symbols, names, images, and designs used in commerce.  The world economy has come to depend on IP goods – from software and pharmaceuticals to cell phones, traditional knowledge and genetic resources.  In many ways, intellectual property rights play a similar role to physical property rights.  Secure intellectual property rights create incentives for innovation just as secure property rights create incentives for production.

Intellectual property laws, like all legal systems, work best when everyone has opportunity to access the legal system and receive the protections of these laws.  The problem is that only a fraction of the world’s population currently has the knowledge and/or means necessary to access the intellectual property legal system and use these laws.

PIIPA was created to address the intellectual property inequities that exist between the haves and the have nots of the global economy.

New Book From PIIPA Now Available!

   This book examines the social impact of intellectual property laws. It addresses issues and
   trends relating to health, food security, education, new technologies, preservation of
   bio-cultural heritage, and contemporary challenges in promoting the arts. It explores
   how intellectual property frameworks could be better calibrated to meet socioeconomic
   needs in countries at different stages of development, with local contexts and culture in  
   mind. Read more...


PIIPA holds seminar at the World Bank: The Role of IP and Poverty Alleviation
 

On Dec. 14, 2010 PIIPA hosted a seminar in conjunction with the World Bank entitled "The Role of IP in Poverty Alleviation-Reduction" The presentation summarized the main findings of our new book, and illustrated concrete areas where resources made a difference in spurring economic development and included operationally relevant case studies from Africa, Latin America and South Asia. Download the program documents here.

NEW CASE STUDY: Copyright Protection: A Nollywood Anti-Piracy Strategy – Success!
 

Over the last three years, PIIPA IP Corps volunteers have helped the African Artists Collaborative (AAC) battle counterfeiting and the illegal sale of movies from the Nigerian film industry (Nollywood) in the U.S. by using copyright procedures and processes and by litigating IP infringement of their works. As a direct result of these efforts, on November 4, 2010 in Brooklyn, New York, the Kings County District Attorney Charles J. Hynes announced an investigation that recovered 10,300 counterfeit DVDs and more!  Read the full case study here.