The Native American Intellectual Property Enterprise Council (NAIPEC) supports invention and innovation for Native American inventors, and in the Native American community by providing quantitative patenting, copyright, and trademark assistance, and helping protect the rich cultural heritage of indigenous people. By helping individual inventors or tribal communities, protect and preserve their long traditions of innovation, and bring new concepts to market, NAIPEC is at the intersection of industry and academia, facilitating opportunity and helping create new knowledge-based enterprises.
Our mission is to help breathe life into new ideas in the Native American community and to protect, grow and cultivate invention, innovation and creativity to help support and sustain a new economic infrastructure.
Click this button to Choose your Support Level and complete your secure donation
NAIPEC is a 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is tax-deductible
As a proud partner of Invent Together, we are happy to let you know about The Inventor’s Patent Academy.
Invent Together is an alliance of universities, nonprofits, companies, passionate individuals, and other stakeholders, brought together by a shared belief: that everyone should have the opportunity to invent and patent their ideas.
This FREE, one-of-a-kind, e-learning course aims to help people understand the patenting process and get them ready to apply for their own patent. It also explores challenges inventors may face along the way—particularly those that typically affect women, people of color, veterans, low-income individuals, people with disabilities, and other underrepresented inventors—and provides advice to overcome them. Throughout the program, participants will hear from actual inventors about the challenges they faced and their successes on their journeys to bring ideas to life.
NAIPEC’s Tribal Intellectual Property Hub
The NAIPEC TIP-HUB is an online resource currently covering three regions, to provide information on assistance available to individual Native American inventors.
NAIPEC's Strategy Paper on Intellectual Property Value Creation and Economic Development.
Outlining the strategy for Native Tribes and Tribal businesses to leverage Intellectual Property as an engine for value creation and economic development.
This paper outlines our approach and guidelines to Native Tribes and Tribal businesses, in assessing, acquiring and extracting value from IP; and how IP as an asset can be leveraged to generate value through innovation; economic development; workforce deployment; and the creation of new enterprise in Indian Country..
NAIPEC and IP
Founded by renowned, successful Native American Inventor T. David Petite, NAIPEC brings together some of the brightest minds in the world, to provide leadership in the fields of educating, capturing, managing, developing, and manufacturing the ideas and intellectual property of Native American inventors.
Supported by its network of partners and international experts, NAIPEC delivers world-class education, advanced interdisciplinary research and modern business development support. NAIPEC serves as an Intellectual Property incubator organization providing direct assistance in the areas of:
The history of Native American innovation dates back through millennia. Providing assistance to the Native American community provides additional means of economic development for tribal groups around the country. It also bring the vast pool of talent that exists within these communities to the forefront of modern technological and cultural life.
We are currently supported by privately raised funding, intellectual know-how and direct resource support. We are actively seeking other funding sources and looking to expand our network of resources.
As NAIPEC grows we are looking to utilize and expand native knowledge and convert it into a valuable commodity exchange. Our objective is to provide the ability to bring measurable income growth opportunity for the native inventor and tribal organizations. By facilitating this growth we expect to see the intellectual resources of Native innovation create centers of excellence and innovation, incubating ideas into sustainable intellectual and real capital, providing for the inventors and the tribe, new and more abundant income resources for Native Americans.
For more about us and our Native American IP Project, please read our White Paper | Harmony
SUPPORT US
Click this button to Choose your Support Level and complete your secure donation
* You may use your major credit or debit card and do not
need to register, or have an account with PayPal
Or Contact Us to arrange other donation methods
NAIPEC is a 501(c)3 organization. Your donation is tax-deductible
NAIPEC CORE TEAM
Thomas David Petite is a registered member of the Fond Du Lac Tribe, and he is the son of a Chippewa Chief from Wisconsin. He continues to extol and embrace his treasured family heritage through his work as the founder of the Native American Inventors Association and as a newly selected member of the Professional Awards Selection Committee of the American Indian Science Engineering Society.
As a young boy David and his father, a sonar engineer, would work on radios by taking them apart and putting them back together. This is how his love of technology developed into a career as an inventor in wireless communications.
Today, David is respectfully noted as the key inventor of wireless ad hoc networks, and as the creator of the Essential Wireless Mesh™ (EWM™) Patent Portfolio. The technology he has constructed is being used throughout many industries, including the development of the widely used smart grid revolution. David is a highly recognized inventor in the worldwide energy and communications community with over 40 U.S. issued patents to his name. David has harnessed his talents as an inventor and entrepreneur into several highly successful business ventures. David and his wife Candida reside in Atlanta, Georgia where they manage and operate their company SIPCO, LLC which provides application based wireless technology and design.
T David Petite’s invention of smart cloud technology in the 1990s came through his early desire to extend wireless networks for people to use as a tool to control their environments. His inventions covered the architecture of networks and communications, as well as applications of specific technology. Creating a number of ongoing business opportunities he is involved in or has sold. His technology effectively created a way to extend the internet to millions of remote actuators or sensors. These sensors or actuators could be applied across many industries and could be devices such as electric meters, cargo container locks, thermometers, pressure sensors, amongst many.
Today Mr. Petite’s greatest recognized accomplishments surround his inventions in the Smart Grid arena. Mr. Petite’s technology is also being currently used in soil management, home appliances (such as washers and dryers), industrial plant monitoring, building automation, and medical asset management. As his inventions are architecturally based rather than application specific, Mr. Petite’s network design can be applied to many industries.
A large number of companies such as General Electric, Itron, license and uses his patented technology. He was recently honored by the Georgia State Senate in a resolution introduced by Chairman of the Economic Development Committee Senator Chip Pearson. Mr. Petite was recognized for “his innovations in wireless technology and his incredible career”.
Kim Ribbans has Marketing, Communications, Brand Development and Business Management experience that spans over 25 years. Working in Europe and North America she has directed projects for major organizations on national and global scales. Most recently, she was a consultant helping small and medium sized organizations maximize their investment in sustainable marketing, and was the CEO and Marketing Development Director for the estate of a world famous artist. She has also been responsible for managing one of the country’s most recognized energy efficiency brands and the complex set of relationships with partners and clients who implement programs under its name.
Kim has been involved in community and social causes for over twenty five years, and as a child of a political family, has had an interest in public service for most of her life. She has held board positions with not-for-profit and public benefit organizations, and was a 2001 recipient of the City of Atlanta’s Phoenix Award for outstanding civic service. In Great Britain she was involved in the foundation of the Marketing and Strategic Policy Group for the British Labour Party, and worked on election campaigns in the 1980’s. During that time she was Chair of her local parliamentary constituency party, a city-wide representative and a national union representative for the British Actors Equity Association.
ADVISORY PANEL
Clarence O’Berry
Clarence O’Berry is the President/CEO of the Mandaree Enterprises family of companies, and brings over 35 years’ experience in business-development and tribal enterprise management to his advisory position with NAIPEC. His business expertise spans a host of disciplines, including strategic partnerships, acquisitions, organizational renewal, branding, trademarking, intellectual property investments and management, federal and commercial contract capture. A lifelong entrepreneur himself, Clarence is committed to pursuing innovative strategies to promote Native ingenuity and commercial success. Among numerous other awards, he has been recognized by the Minority Business Alliance in 2008 as one of the 25 Most Powerful Minority Men in Business. Clarence is an enrolled member of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate Sioux Tribe.
Dr. Nicolas Chronos
Dr. Nicolas Chronos is an interventional cardiologist well known for his pioneering research in the treatment of heart disease. His cardiology practice focuses on general cardiology, coronary artery disease management, and heart failure management. He is an expert in cardiac regenerative medicine, cardiovascular medical device assessment, and translational cardiovascular medicine.
John Herman
John Herman is a partner at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP, the Chair of the Firm’s Intellectual Property and Technology Practice and manages the Firm’s Atlanta office. His practice focuses on complex civil litigation, with a particular emphasis on high technology matters. His experience includes securities, patent, antitrust, data breach, whistleblower and class action litigation. Herman also has significant first chair trial experience, handling numerous cases through verdict in both federal and state courts.
Kodee Goseyun
Manager, San Carlos Apache Tribe, BDEE Incubator, Tucson AZ. Kodee has experience in procurement and fostering innovation, and has worked around the country helping small and growing businesses. She was previously with UIDA Business Services as a Procurement Consultant.
David Kennedy
Managing Director, Berkeley Research Group, Atlanta. David is an expert in intellectual property valuation, analysis of claims for infringement damages, and negotiating the economics of patent sales and licensing agreements. His experience includes determining reasonable royalty rates, negotiating patent sales and license agreements, and performing patent portfolio valuations. He has also managed IP holding companies, raised venture capital for IP-based companies, and provided strategic advice to companies and universities related to patent portfolio divestitures.
© 2009-2022 Native American Intellectual Property Enterprise Council, Inc
A 501(c)3 organization
Contact us: email