Sustaining Creativity
Get certified for ethical sourcing
Sourcing ideas ethically is not just the right thing to do - it makes good business sense. When you respect the Intangible Assets of your vendors and suppliers, they give you their best ideas at more competitive prices. By sustaining their creativity, you are sustaining their businesses. The PitchMark® IP Governance Certification Program™ certifies your stewardship of vendor creativity.
Why Certify?
The PitchMark® IP Governance Certification Program™ supports governance and sustainability reporting requirements. It aligns with the following sustainability standards:
- ISO 56005, which provides guidance on intellectual property (IP) management as part of innovation practices — including how to integrate IP strategy into broader innovation management, systematically identify and protect IP, and use consistent tools and methods to manage it, in order to enhance innovation outcomes.
- ISO 37301, which provides requirements for organisations to establish, implement, evaluate, maintain, and improve their compliance systems. It’s designed to build governance, transparency, accountability, and integrity into your organisation’s operations. The PitchMark® program’s detailed guidance on compliance behaviors, accountability and monitoring aligns with ISO 37301’s framework for building a sustainable, ethical governance system around intangible assets and IP.
- ISSB S1, which requires organisations to identify and disclose all sustainability-related risks and opportunities — including those arising across the value chain. This includes recognising IP-related vulnerabilities such as inadequate protection of proprietary knowledge, misuse of licensed assets, or weak supplier controls. Because S1 explicitly extends disclosure expectations to upstream and downstream activities, it encourages more rigorous stewardship of vendor-provided IP. The PitchMark® IP Governance Certification Program™ demonstrates that they have processes to identify, monitor, and mitigate IP integrity risks within their supplier ecosystem.
- GRI 2-22, which calls on you to articulate your strategy publicly and align governance with broader sustainability goals — not just internal compliance processes.
Vendor IP protection is a sustainability issue
When you safeguard the IP of your vendors and suppliers you are meeting these UN Sustainable Development Goals.
8.3 - Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services.
12.7 - Promote public procurement practices that are sustainable, in accordance with national policies and priorities.
Who this certification is for
The PitchMark® IP Governance Certification Program™ is for you if you:
- Receive ideas, concepts, designs, storyboards, or other Intellectual Property from vendors
- Have been accused of idea theft
- Believe ethical sourcing is important to your company's reputation
Chances are your sustainability initiatives are
primarily dominated by a focus on your
organization’s environmental impact. But
there are immediate steps you can take to
meet UN SDGs related to Social and
Governance imperatives, especially if:
● You are looking to balance your company's large material environmental impact by supporting the communities you operate in
or
● Your company has a small environmental impact, so you are looking to demonstrate your stewardship of sustainability in other ways.
Benefits
The PitchMark® IP Governance Certification Program™
helps you get audit-ready with 12
key stewardship criteria, which deepens a
strong ethical sourcing culture over time.
You may take the Program in two ways:
- Online – up to two (2) hours
- In-person – half or full day – enquire through our LiveChat
Participants in our online course have their
course fees credited back when they book our
in-person workshops.
For both online and in-person Programs, you will
receive:
- 1 x Kick-off briefing delivered in-person or virtually by PitchMark® Legal Advisor Mr Frank Rittman
-
1 x Program Manual, containing:
- Benchmarks - find out what your organization should be doing.
- Practices - learn the steps you should be taking.
- Templates - receive ready-to-use documentation
- Certificate (valid for two [2] years) – include this in your Sustainability Report.
- PitchMark badge pack, to communicate your compliance to stakeholders through your website, email and collaterals.
Certification Structure
The PitchMark® IP Governance Certification Program™ Manual contains 12 recommendations with 50 control- and action points:
- Recommendation 1: Committing To IP Sustainability
- Recommendation 2: Establishing Internal Supervision and Responsibility
- Recommendation 3: Implementing Internal Commitments
- Recommendation 4: Establishing Internal Controls
- Recommendation 5: Engaging External Partners
- Recommendation 6: Sustaining Awareness and Expectations
- Recommendation 7: Messaging and Communications
- Recommendation 8: Aligning Expectations
- Recommendation 9: Auditing Compliance
- Recommendation 10: Accessibility and Responsiveness
- Recommendation 11: Cooperating and Coordinating
- Recommendation 12: Implementing an Internal Monitoring and Whistleblowing Mechanism
Risk Management Benefits
Get certified to:
- Demonstrate alignment with GRI, ISSB and ISO.
- Reduce legal exposure
- Strengthen stakeholder trust
- Negotiate better supplier charges
- Share details in your sustainability report
- Be audit-ready
Next steps
Take the following 7-point quiz to pre-qualify for the PitchMark® IP Governance Certification Program™.
Ready to start straight away? Get Certified Now.
