Launched by The Royal Foundation in late 2020, The Earthshot Prize is the most prestigious global environment prize in history, and CIPA was lucky enough to play an important role in the first edition of the awards in 2021.
Between 2021 and 2030, an annual awards ceremony will take place in different cities across the world to award five winners The Earthshot Prize. Each winner will receive a £1 million prize and a global platform to roll out their environmental innovations. This means over the next ten years the prize will be providing at least 50 solutions to the world’s greatest environmental problems.
A team of 25 volunteer attorneys were set up after CIPA approached The Royal Foundation to offer IP assistance if it was needed. The team, made up of attorneys from small and large firms, came up with a basic IP due diligence process to be applied to the list of entrants, and eventually finalists too.
Around 100 entrants completed the questionnaire, and comments and advice were provided to those who needed it. When the 15 finalists were announced in July 2021, those who requested pro bono IP support were put back in touch with the attorneys who assessed them, and assistance was once again given.
The five prize winners were announced at a London ceremony in October.
The role CIPA played this year has led to us to becoming an affiliated nominator organisation. This means we can put forward our own entrants from the client base of our members for future awards. Nominations for the 2022 Prize opened in January 2022.
Rachel Moriarty
Earthshot’s Rachel Moriarty, Head of Prize Design and Impact, said: “In our first year running The Earthshot Prize, we wanted to ensure that our selection process was robust and rigorous, to select the finalists with the greatest potential and ability to scale their impact and help us reach our Earthshots.
“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.”