In the crystal structure of the title polymeric compound, [Cu(C(12)H(12)O(4))(C(10)H(8)N(2))](n), the asymmetric unit consists of one Cu(II) ion, one 5-tert-butyl-isophthalate (tbip) and one 2,2'-bipyridine (bpy) ligand. The copper(II) ion is four-coordin-ated by two N atoms from bipy and two O atoms from two tbip ligands, leading to a distorted tetrahedral coordination. Each tbip ligand adopts a bis-monodentate coordination mode to connect two symmetry-related copper(II) ions, so forming a zigzag polymer chain parallel to [001]. The tert-butyl methyl groups are disordered over two positions with occupancies of 0.506 (6)/0.494 (6).