Welcome
Welcome to Queen Mary Intellectual Property Research Institute (QMIPRI), one of the foremost intellectual property research institutes in the world. QMIPRI is a vibrant and diverse research community of international experts in intellectual property law and policy.
QMIPRI is the result of a wonderful history of intellectual property law teaching and research at Queen Mary. In 1980, Sir Roy Goode established the world-renowned Centre for Commercial Law Studies (CCLS), at the same time establishing some of the first courses on intellectual property law in the United Kingdom. With a generous private endowment from noted inventor Dr Herchel Smith, the Herchel Smith Chair in Intellectual Property Law was established. This history of intellectual property at CCLS led to the ultimate creation of today's dedicated research institute - QMIPRI - under the directorship of the Herchel Smith Professor, securing the reputation of CCLS as one of the world's leading centres for the teaching and research of commercial and intellectual property law. In our new home in Lincoln's Inn Fields, we are looking forward to ongoing collaboration with practitioners. At QMIPRI we are very proud of our long-standing cooperation between scholarly research excellence and professional practice.
As a department of Queen Mary's School of Law, CCLS is dedicated to postgraduate teaching and is part of the environment of research excellence in law for which Queen Mary is internationally regarded. At the time of establishing CCLS, Sir Roy Goode and the Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys (CIPA) began what is now a well-established relationship with CCLS, in the education of trainee patent attorneys and those seeking to enter the profession. This training continues today with programmes for patent and trade mark professionals that are among the most respected in the UK, attracting scholars from all over the world. CIPA has been an important part of QMIPRI's research life as well, making significant contributions to the IP Archive at Queen Mary, which is one of the finest specialist intellectual property collections in Europe.
As a dedicated research centre of CCLS, QMIPRI is also an important community for the many international scholars undertaking LLM and PhD studies at Queen Mary and CCLS, offering students a particularly stimulating and motivating environment for their studies. Indeed, we are proud of QMIPRI as a noted 'hub' in the international world of intellectual property law, regularly consulting to governments, commercial firms and non-governmental organisations. Students are also able to take part in the MSc and doctoral programmes of the European Intellectual Property Research Institutes Network (EIPIN), of which QMIPRI is a foundation member.
This combination of research and intellectual excellence with the particular commercial realities of intellectual property practice and policy is one of the most striking qualities of QMIPRI and its history with CCLS of Queen Mary. It is also part of QMIPRI's mission to deliver research and information for a broader public benefit... indeed one of the original visions of Sir Roy Goode when he established CCLS back in 1980.
Welcome to QMIPRI!
Michael Blakeney & Johanna Gibson
Herchel Smith Professors of Intellectual Property Law
Co-Directors QMIPRI
