In 1883, the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property, which constitutes the basis for international treaties and conventions relating to industrial property rights, was concluded, raising the necessity for the establishment of a private international organization to coordinate and prepare issues to be studied, work out documents, increase signatory countries and study the holding of diplomatic meetings on a continuous and permanent basis. The governments, traders, legal experts, engineers and others involved with the inauguration of the Paris Convention got together to study this necessity. As a result, a plan was materialized to set up a private organization to make its cooperation constantly available. In 1897, the International Association for the Protection of Industrial Property (abbreviated name: AIPPI) was inaugurated at its committee meeting held in Brussels.

　Established under Swiss law, AIPPI has its General Secretariat in Zurich. It has developed as the world's largest intellectual property-related organization with its activities spreading over about 100 countries where the number of members reaches approximately 8,000, representing the industry, legal society and academic world.

　Throughout more than 100 years since its inauguration, AIPPI has been working closely with BIRPI, an organization to manage the Paris Convention, and its successor, WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization). Particularly in recent years, AIPPI and WIPO have been working closely together just like the two sides of a coin to achieve international harmonization and tackle other important issues concerning intellectual property systems.

　The most important activities of AIPPI include the AIPPI Congress, the Executive Committee Meeting and meetings of various working committees. In April 1992, the 35th AIPPI Congress was held in Tokyo, where almost 3,000 members from about 70 countries attended. Subsequent Congresses were held in Montreal, Rio de Janeiro, Melbourne, Geneva and Gothenburg. Future Congresses will take place Boston in 2008, Paris in 2010, Seoul in 2012 and Toronto in 2014.

　The Executive Committee Meeting had been held every two years in the middle of the AIPPI Congress. The number of participants from each national group is fixed in proportion to the number of its national members, and the total number of participants approved for Japan is 17.

　The Executive Committee Meeting was held in Singapore in September 2007, and will be held in Buenos Aires in 2009 and Hyderabad (India) in 2011.

　Japanese members take part in the standing committees such as the Program Committee and the Nominating Committee, as well as in most of the working committees of the existing special committees, in the AIPPI General Secretariat as members, and are contributing to the development of the world's intellectual property systems.

　In addition to the above, it was decided to change the name to the "International Association for the Protection of Intellectual Property" in the Congress of the General Secretariat held in Melbourne in March 2001.