Based on their experience, prior to starting the biip project, Marnix Moens, European patent attorney, and Kirkpatrick, a leading intellectual property (“IP”) services firm in Belgium, had independently from one another come to the conclusion that, besides traditional IP services (such as patentability searches and protection services), clients, and in particular large companies (but not only) need more strategic advices in relation to IP, such as:

• Innovation Study
• Patent Watch
• IP Landscape
• IP Searches
• Market & Competition Search
• Trend Search
• IP Exploitation
• Portfolio Audit
• Freedom Study
• IP Valorisation
• Other IP-related Services
• IP Project Management
• IP Process and Tools
• IP Policy and Procedures
• IP Sensibilization and Education Programs

In March 2005, Marnix Moens and Kirkpatrick decided to cooperate in order to investigate the possibility of launching a new type of IP practice, focusing on innovation and business rather that on IP protection tools.

The first contacts held with potential clients during this feasibility study for the creation of biip confirmed this assumption and, in October 2005, Business Integrated Intellectual Property (“BiiP”) was established as an independent unit of Kirkpatrick SA, with a team of 4.

Immediately, what was only an intuition became reality, in the form of actual assignments received from a number of blue chip clients.

Further to these first encouraging signs, Kirkpatrick and Marnix Moens decided to move to the next step, by incorporating biip in a separate legal entity.