When we developed the IP Inclusive Charter, the wording we used was purposefully broad to enable many IP organisations, as well as in-house IP departments, to sign the Charter. In practice, most of the Charter signatories (of which there are nearly 90!) are IP firms. Thus, the ‘Best Practice’ group within IP Inclusive has been trying to identify the barriers that may prevent organisations from signing the Charter.
We are pleased to announce that after discussions with representatives of IP Federation, some changes to the wording on the sign-up page for the Charter have been agreed which we hope will enable in-house IP departments to sign the Charter. In particular, we have made it clearer that senior managers in an IP department are signing the Charter on behalf of the IP department only, and that the IP Department will comply with the IP Inclusive Charter to the extent appropriate and possible within the larger organisation.
We hope we’ll now be able to add more in-house IP departments to the list of Charter signatories! If you have any questions about the Charter, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.