The International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property, generally known under the abbreviated name AIPPI, is the world's leading International Organization dedicated to the development and improvement of intellectual property.

It is a politically neutral, non-profit organization, domiciled in Switzerland which currently has over 8000 Members representing more than 100 countries.

The objective of AIPPI is to improve and promote the protection of intellectual property on both an international and national basis. It pursues this objective by working for the development, expansion and improvement of international and regional treaties and agreements and also of national laws relating to intellectual property.

It operates by conducting studies of existing national laws and proposes measures to achieve harmonization of these laws on an international basis. In this context AIPPI has become increasingly concerned with issues concerning the enforcement of intellectual property rights.

The Members of AIPPI are people actively interested in intellectual property protection on a national or international level.

They include lawyers, patent attorneys and trademark agents as well as judges, scientists and engineers. They also include corporations.

AIPPI is organized into 64 National and one Regional Groups and membership is obtained by joining one of these Groups. In countries where no Group exists, membership is obtained as an Independent Member in the international organization.

The primary international bodies of AIPPI are:

• the General Assembly, in which all Members have a right to participate and which is responsible for adopting and modifying the Statutes;
• the Executive Committee, made up of Delegates of all of the Groups - around 300 in number; this is the principal decision-making body of AIPPI;
• the Council of Presidents, made up of the Presidents of the Groups plus a representative of the Independent Members; and
• the Bureau which directs the activities of AIPPI; it is formed of eight Members including the President of AIPPI who chairs the Bureau and the Vice President; the Secretary General and a Deputy who are responsible for administration and representation; the Reporter General and two Deputies who, with two Assistants, organize the substantive work of the Association; and a Treasurer General who is in charge of financial resources.

The General Secretariat and staff have offices in Zurich, Switzerland.

Among the more important Standing Committees are the Programmed Committee which recommends to the Executive Committee the subjects for study; the Finance Advisory Committee which acts as an internal auditor; and the Nominating Committee which proposes candidates for the various elective offices.