This year – 2025 – is a special year for CIPPM as the Centre will celebrate its 25th anniversary. Established in 2000, under the Directorship of Professor Martin Kretschmer, CIPPM rapidly grew in stature carrying out significant research projects on intellectual property and policy whilst also leading the way on IP education under the co-directorship of Professor Ruth Soetendorp.

Since then, and over the past 25 years, CIPPM has conducted multiple projects. These have ranged, amongst others, from informing key policy debates and commissioned projects arising from the Gowers Review, Hargreaves Review, copyright term extension, authors’ earnings, unitary patent and unified patent court to the impact of new technologies on IP law (3D printing, blockchain, Artificial Intelligence (AI), deepfake, whilst continuing to lead on IP education through embedding IP into non-law curricula and projects such as Copyrightuser.org

Here is a snap shot of some of the earlier work (drawn from the waybackmachine) and work from 2011-present, can be accessed through this site.

In 2017, the Centre received three-years funding from the European Commission’s Erasmus+ Programme to set up a Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence on “European Intellectual Property and Information Rights”.

In 2024, CIPPM was selected by the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to host the UK’s only Summer School on Intellectual Property, which was been awarded once again, for hosting in 2025.

During the past 25 years, CIPPM has been led by the following Directors:

2000 – 2012: Professor Martin Kretschmer

2013 – 2021: Professor Maurizio Borghi

2022 – Present: Professor Dinusha Mendis.

The Co-Directors during this time have been:

2000 – 2018: Professor Ruth Soetendorp

2008 – Present: Professor Ruth Soetendorp

2012 – 2021: Professor Dinusha Mendis

2024 – Present: Dr. Claudy Op den Kamp.

CIPPM will be celebrating this landmark anniversary with a celebratory event. Watch this space for more information.