About Us

ABOUT US

NAIPEC | About Us THE INDEPENDENT NATIVE AMERICAN INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY COUNCIL (NAIPEC) is a non-profit organization, whose sole purpose is to provide direct help and assistance to Native American inventors.

NAIPEC was founded by renowned, successful Native American Inventor T. David Petite. NAIPEC brings together some of the brightest minds in the world with a mission to assist in the field 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 is an inventor-based organization whose management team has a proven track record of taking ideas from “the back of napkin” to full commercialization, creating new markets and new jobs.

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. Our Membership Program is open to all, and provides ongoing support for the organization, and also valuable resources for our members.

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 recent White Paper | Harmony

THE NAIPEC TEAM

Board of Directors

T. Davyd Petite is of the Ojibwa from the Fond Du Lac tribe, Inventor, Founder of NAIPEC 

Kim Ribbans, Executive Director.

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. Nicholas 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.

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