CIP is governed by the trustees of Creative Intellectual Property, the Charitable Incorporated Organisation established under the Charities Act 2011. Oversight supports quality, review, and continuing development across the framework.
The charity trustees hold ultimate responsibility for the charity's activities, its compliance with charity law, and the application of its income and property solely towards the charitable objects. All major decisions are taken by the trustees at a quorate meeting.
A delegated committee responsible for supporting the development, review, and continuing relevance of the CIP Standard. Includes representation from the five professional communities served by the framework.
Responsible specifically for Platform Certification audits. Separation between day-to-day framework development and independent audit-based review ensures certification decisions are not compromised.
Creative Intellectual Property is constituted as a Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) under the Charities Act 2011, using the Charity Commission's model Foundation CIO constitution. A Foundation Model CIO has two important properties: the members of the CIO are the charity trustees themselves, and the trustees have full responsibility for how the charity is run.
Nothing in the constitution authorises the application of the property of the CIO for purposes which are not charitable.
The CIO has power to do anything calculated to further its objects, including:
Benefits and payments (clause 6): No trustee or connected person may receive goods, services, employment, or financial benefit from the CIO unless specifically permitted. The trustee concerned must withdraw from the relevant meeting and may not vote.
Conflicts of interest (clause 7): A trustee must declare the nature and extent of any interest in any proposed transaction. A register of trustee interests is maintained and updated at each board meeting.
Decision-making (clause 13): Decisions may be taken at a properly convened meeting or by written resolution agreed by a majority of all trustees. Electronic meetings qualify.
Quorum (clause 15(3)): Two trustees, or the number nearest to one-third of the total, whichever is greater.
Creative Intellectual Property is governed by a board of trustees appointed under clause 9 of the CIO Foundation Constitution. The constitution requires a minimum of three trustees and permits up to twelve.
| Trustee | Role | Term |
|---|---|---|
| Mr Fawad Zafar | Chair and Founder Trustee | 4 years |
| Ms Daoprakai Mahasrisatta | Trustee | 2 years |
| Third trustee — appointment in progress | Trustee | To be confirmed |
Each trustee has a duty:
A register of trustee interests is maintained at the principal office and is available on request. Current entries include: Mr Fawad Zafar — Director of Creation Rights. The relationship is disclosed under clause 7 of the constitution.
The CIP Standard is governed by the Standards Committee of Creative Intellectual Property Charity. It is the body responsible for supporting oversight of the framework and helping maintain its quality, consistency, and continuing relevance.
The Standards Committee is structured around representation from the professional communities served by the framework:
The Committee supports the framework by helping guide standards oversight, review, and continuing development. Areas include standards oversight, framework review, certification quality, continuing development, governance support, and alignment across professional communities.
The Standards Committee is supported by an independent audit panel responsible specifically for platform certification audits, providing separation between day-to-day framework development and independent audit-based review.
Read more about the Standards Committee →
The framework includes a regulatory monitoring function that tracks relevant legal and policy developments and supports updates to module content and recertification requirements. This function monitors:
Examination delivery — A digital examination environment for multiple choice, written, and practical modules, including secure proctoring for legal and underwriting designation examinations.
CPD tracking — A continuing professional development tracking system for legal practitioner and underwriter renewals, linked to regulatory update alerts.
Revocation procedure — A formal procedure for revoking designations in cases such as breach of professional standards, platform compliance failure below the required threshold, or material claims arising from certified party conduct.
Mutual recognition — A future mutual recognition structure for mapping CIP certification to existing professional designations, including ISO 42001 and C2PA frameworks.
Contract registry — A contract registry function linked to verification of CIP Standard Contract status via the Rights Registry.
The CIP Advisory Board provides specialist expertise to the trustees on the technical, legal, and creative-industry questions the framework addresses. Advisers do not hold trustee responsibilities; their role is to bring deep domain knowledge into the development of the standard, the course content, and the certification criteria.
The Board is currently being assembled across four specialist domains:
Expressions of interest are welcomed at advisory@creativeip.org.
The charity's educational purpose commits it to neutrality on contested questions. On settled points of law, the charity teaches the law accurately. On contested questions — for example, the use of copyrighted material for AI training — the charity presents the main competing positions with references to sources for each, and does not advocate a particular outcome.
All three charitable objects are stated for the public benefit. Activities are available to the general public, free of charge where reasonable, with concessions or free places offered to students and to those for whom any fee would be a barrier.
Full legal, neutrality and public benefit statement →
Mr Fawad Zafar, Founder Trustee and Chair, is also a Director of Creation Rights — a commercial entity supporting parts of the wider framework. This relationship is disclosed on the public register of trustee interests under clause 7 of the constitution. The CIP Standard is a charitable framework governed by Creative Intellectual Property (the CIO). Creation Rights operates separately as a commercial supporter of the framework.
A reference template implementing the CIP Governance Minimum Dataset — the 10 items a board minute, governance record, or risk-committee paper must contain to qualify as a CIP-aligned governance record. Covers all items with prompts and example values.
For governance-related enquiries, please contact governance@creativeip.org.
Creative Intellectual Property Charity
Floor 2, 53 Courtfield Gardens, London SW5 0NF
Recognition within CIP is not automatic. Certificates, badges, designations, and certification marks are tied to defined standards — and those standards require oversight if they are to remain credible over time.