Intellectual property (IP) advocates ensure the future is bright for our country’s creators, innovators, and entrepreneurs. Through trademarks, patents, and copyrights, we all have the opportunity to create a living with our own ideas.

Last year, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Global Intellectual Property Center recognized three champions of IP advocacy. These champions – Barbara Kolm, the Creative Coalition, and actor Richard Kind – have continuously used their platforms to advance the IP agenda in the U.S. and across the globe.

Learn more about our 2016 IP Champions for Excellence in Advocacy below!

Barbara Kolm, president of the Friedrich A. v. Hayek Institute and director of the Austrian Economics Center, is an international networker and has worked to promote free-market policies among an array of international policymakers. She shares with these policymakers, as well as business leaders and academics, the value of a strong global intellectual property policy framework and rallies support for pro-IP policies, laws, and regulations.

The Creative Coalition is a star-studded non-profit advocacy group that keeps creative rights, including intellectual property rights, top-of-mind for lawmakers, the media, and the public. The Coalition has worked tirelessly to educate, motivate, and activate the entertainment community since 1989.

Richard Kind is an actor and an outspoken leader on creators’ rights. Kind’s contributions to the creative community are hard to count. He has wowed in 180 roles over the past 30 years, most famously in Mad About You, Argo, and Curb Your Enthusiasm, among others. He’s an active member of the aforementioned Creative Coalition and has been an instrumental voice for the entire creative community in Washington and around the world.

Without the dedication and enthusiasm of advocates like these, the creative community would not be what it is today. We thank Ms. Kolm, the Creative Coalition, and Mr. Kind for their passionate and consistent support.

Who will inspire you at this year’s IP Champions Gala? Join us on November 14 to honor our 2017 awardees.