The Intellectual Property Office (IPO) is the official government body responsible for Intellectual Property (IP) rights in the United Kingdom. These rights include: Patents Designs Trade marks Copyright We are an Executive Agency of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) . As part of the BEIS, we are responsible for the role of IP rights in supporting innovation. As an Executive Agency of the BEIS, the IPO are directed and controlled by corporate governance rules to ensure that it supplies public services of the highest quality, shares good ideas, controls costs and above all delivers what its supposed to. To ensure that it acts within these rules, Ministers appoint independent members to sit on a Steering Board. This Steering Board has no executive functions; its role is to advise Ministers, through our Director General, on the strategies that the IPO must adopt. The Steering Board has established an Audit Committee to assist and advise it on risk, control, governance and associated issues. The Committee acts in a non-executive capacity.