UK’s CIPA to become Earthshot nominator

The Chartered Institute of Patent Attorneys is to become an affiliated nominator organisation to the Earthshot Prize, an awards scheme run by Price William to award inventors’ environmentalist efforts.

It means CIPA will be able to propose entrants for next year’s awards, having advised this year’s finalists on intellectual property protection.

The Earthshot Prize is the first in a series to be held annually for the next decade.

The first five winners were announced this week at an awards ceremony in London. They received £1 million ($1.3 million) as well as professional and technical support to help roll out their environmental innovations, which included a system for regrowing coral.

CIPA advised the organisers on all IP issues and a team of volunteer patent attorneys performed due diligence checks on the finalists, providing them with IP advice.  

Rachel Moriarty, head of prize design and impact at Earthshot, said: “CIPA assisted us with an integral part of this screening and due diligence process to evaluate the different aspects of IP that could be at play, acting with diligence and professionalism.

“CIPA not only gave everyone involved the confidence and assurance in the finalists’ solutions by performing this due diligence, but also gave invaluable support to the finalists with ongoing IP advice to scale their impact.”

The Earthshot Prize will be held in the US next year. Nominations will open in January 2022.