Introduction

In 2005, a panel of 18 internationally acknowledged IP experts was recruited from industry, the law and academia in order to select the first inductees into the IP Hall of Fame. The experts were each asked to choose five individuals who they felt merited a place and to explain why. A shortlist was then drawn up from which the first inductees were selected.

The first 23 inductees into the IP Hall of Fame, named in February 2006, included two US presidents, a Japanese prime minister and one of France's greatest authors. Both Thomas Jefferson and James Madison were honoured for their insistence that intellectual property rights be specifically safeguarded by the US Constitution, while Korekiyo Takahashi was recognised as the founding father of Japan's patent system. Victor Hugo, meanwhile, was nominated as a prime mover behind the creation of the Berne Convention on Copyright, which to this day helps safeguard the rights of authors and other copyright owners in over 150 countries. Other inductees included the great American inventor Thomas Edison and Sir Edward Coke, a 17th century English courtier who played a pivotal role in the foundation of modern patent rights.

Among the inductees from the present day are Microsoft's IP chief Marshall Phelps and Bruce Lehman, a former Commissioner of the US Patent and Trademark Office and Under-secretary of Commerce during the Clinton presidency. European representatives included Klaus-Dieter Langfinger, head of IP at BASF and a prime advocate for IP rights in Europe.

For background information on inductees, including the reasons for their inclusion, please select an individual from the left-hand alphabetical list and then click on the photograph.