About AIPLA

Founded in 1897, AIPLA is a national bar association constituted primarily of practitioners in private and corporate practice, in government service, and in the academic community. AIPLA represents a wide and diverse spectrum of individuals from law firms, companies, and institutions involved directly or indirectly in the practice of patent, trademark, copyright, trade secret, and unfair competition law, as well as other fields of law affecting intellectual property. Our members represent both owners and users of intellectual property.

View a complete list of our current Officers and Board Members.

AIPLA was formed to maintain a high standard of professional ethics, to aid in the improvement in laws relating to intellectual property and in their proper interpretation by the courts, and to provide legal education to the public and to its members on intellectual property issues.

AIPLA is governed by a Board of Directors and has a staff of eight, headed by an Executive Director, located in Arlington, Virginia. AIPLA has more than 50 administrative and substantive committees which provide education to their members and formulate proposed positions for the Board of Directors to consider adopting as Association policy.

AIPLA is also actively involved in shaping US intellectual property policy through its work on legislation, federal regulations, and intellectual property cases in the US courts. Internationally, AIPLA has spearheaded a worldwide campaign to reduce the costs of procurement and enforcement of patents and trademarks, regularly participates in meetings of the World Intellectual Property Organization, and maintains close relations with foreign IP officials and practitioners.

To qualify for membership, applicants must be members in good standing of the Bar of a court of record of the United States or any State, the District of Columbia, or is registered to practice with the USPTO. Foreign affiliate members must be able to practice in a court of general jurisdiction in their countries, or registered to practice before the Patent or Trademark Office in their country of citizenship or practice, to be considered for membership. AIPLA also has student affiliate memberships available for those regularly enrolled in a law school approved by the Association of American Law Schools and affiliate membership is available to IP Professionals, Technical Advisors, and Paralegals. Approximately 63% of the regular members are in private practice, 33% in corporate practice, with the remainder in the government or academia. See our membership application for more information.

AIPLA conducts three regularly scheduled conferences a year, mid-winter, spring, and fall, at which the Association offers educational seminars on the latest developments in intellectual property law. In addition, AIPLA conducts several stand-alone seminars on specialized areas of intellectual property law throughout the year around the country, as well as online educational programs.

The Association produces a number of informative publications including the AIPLA Quarterly Journal (a scholarly law journal published four times a year), the digital AIPLA Bulletin (an overview of AIPLA meetings published electronically three times a year, and meeting papers from the regularly scheduled conferences and nationwide seminars. The Association also provides its members online access to a membership directory. Finally, AIPLA biennially publishes the Report of the Economic Survey, providing a significant benchmarking tool for compensation and charges in the intellectual property law field.

AIPLA is also the US national group of the Global IP Association AIPPI, known now as the AIPPI-US Division. Learn more about AIPPI-US.