INTA: 2021 calendar of events

INTA: 2021 calendar of events

IPTango   February 05, 2021   No comments:

Today, the International Trademark Association (INTA) announced some events that will take place this year.

Etienne Sanz de Acedo (INTA’s CEO) emphasized that the agenda changes are innovative and critical because of the pandemic. Thus, they were made based on prioritizing the attendees’ health and safety.

Therefore, the “Trademark Administrators and Practitioners Meeting” will not be offered in 2021, and all conferences will be held online.

The Annual and Leadership Meetings will switch the usual time of the year.

Consequently, the Annual Meeting will not occur from 1 to 5 May in San Diego, California, as was expected. It will be held from 15 to 19 November in Houston (Texas, USA), and it will also include virtual programming.

Etienne also announced that the 2022 Annual Meeting will take place from 25 to 29 April 2022 in Singapore.

The 2021 calendar of events is the following:

• 23 - 24 March 2021. (Online) Conference “2021 What’s Next for Brands: A View from Europe”.
• 3 - 7 May 2021. (Online) INTA’s 2021 Leadership Meeting.
• September 2021. (Online) Conference “2021 Brand Resilience: Risk, Recovery, and the Future of the Brand Practitioner” (TBC).
• 15 - 19 November 2021. (Online & Houston, Texas, USA) INTA’s 143rd Annual Meeting.

Review here more information about the events.

Watch here a video where Etienne announced the events.

Source: INTA.

Image by iXimus from Pixabay.

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INTA’s Digital Transformation

INTA’s Digital Transformation

IPTango   July 25, 2020   No comments:

The International Trademark Association (INTA) held an exclusive meeting with the media at the beginning of this month. 

The meeting was the perfect opportunity to know about INTA’s Digital Transformation project. Etienne Sanz de Acedo (INTA’s CEO) provided an overview, highlighting the association had already considered moving to the virtual environment before the pandemic started.

Etienne indicated the project has four phases and it is marking major milestones:

THE FIRST ONLINE CONFERENCE, BRANDS IN SOCIETY: THEIR INFLUENCE AND RESPONSIBILITY

The 2020 New York Conference was held online on 22 and 23 June 2020. Etienne explained the event was very successful and 250 participants attended the sessions. He also remarked the networking opportunities were well received by the attendees. Networking sessions were topic-focused and took place in small groups.

THE NEW USER-FRIENDLY WEBSITE UNVEILED ON 25 JUNE 2020

The new website involved a redo of the legal resources and a career centre for INTA’s members. In addition to this, the INTA bulletin was revamped, which now includes multimedia content and is published weekly. 

THE ANNUAL MEETING AND LEADERSHIP MEETING

These meetings will be held online from 16 to 20 November 2020. Etienne showed a sneak peek of the virtual platform, which comprises inter alia the possibility to schedule one on one meetings through the user profile. 

The platform will also allow sorting the sessions per day or track. Live and on-demand sessions will have a theatre interface. Moreover, on-demand sessions will be available until the end of the year. 

Etienne also revealed some sessions dedicated to anti-counterfeiting and enforcement issues, workshops for advancing careers, as well as a China track, are all part of the program. 

INTA promises to engage the attendees. Etienne highlighted there will be plenty of networking opportunities, a strong virtual exhibition, and thought-provoking sessions on IP matters, all through the usage of a solid platform. 

Networking opportunities will comprise one on one meetings, table topics, speed networking and social sessions (e.g. meetups, wellness [yoga], tastings [wine, coffee], and sports). 

INTA expects the special prices will attract more attendees, including people who normally do not attend the annual meetings, such as younger associates and paralegals. The registration for attending the meetings is already open. You can find more information here. 

The exclusive meeting with the media concluded with the remark that INTA will maintain virtual activities post-pandemic. 

Credits: Images are courtesy of INTA. 

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Where the INTA Leadership Meeting is leading?

Where the INTA Leadership Meeting is leading?

Patricia Covarrubia   January 26, 2017   No comments:

We have today a magnificent opportunity to post the opinion of one of the Latin American leading firms. Alvaro Ramirez Bonilla (B&R Latin America) has taken the trouble to write about the recent INTA Leadership Meeting. The Leadership Meetings are by invitation only and here is what he has to say:

This year we had the largest Leadership meeting ever. The first time I attended this meeting was in Orlando 2012, we were about 800 participants, now in Hollywood we were more than 1200. Still smaller than the annual meeting but getting busiest.

INTA is happy to see that their events are being so successful, with more attendees there's a higher income but from the attendee point of view the largest doesn’t mean the better. More people means less time to create real relations.

Attending to this particular meeting is about reinforcing your relations with clients, colleagues and friends. The content sessions are ok if you don’t have something better to do but it is very hard to learn something new from them. And the committee work is very limited so you have a lot of time to hang out around the pool or the ocean.
My committee meetings were as unproductive as previous years but the food was better. On the other hand, I was glad to hear from some of my colleagues that their committees were very active. I am not sure if they said it to be nice, look more professional or it is just me that I end up in the committees with lack of motivation.
One of the announcements was the opening of a Latin America Representative Office in Santiago, Chile, in 2017. My impression is that the CEO of INTA, Etienne Sanz de Acedo is making a political campaign for an international position, probably he wants to be the next WIPO General Director, and he is using the INTA as a platform to achieve his objective.

He is being very active in creating relations with many national trademarks offices, specially in Spanish speaking countries. He is probably looking for the support of these countries to have voters on the next WIPO elections. Remember that in his previous life he was an international bureaucrat, an ambitious one.
This also explains why next year the Leadership meeting will take place in Washington DC, one of my favorites cities, but also a particular choice. Historically leadership meetings have taken place in fall on places with nice weather (Florida, Arizona and Panama). Attendees are happy when they have nice weather and since it is a social event the location should be chic.
But most of the people I spoke to complained about the choice of Washington, “it will be cold and rainy” they said. it is clear that the CEO objective is not to take a sunbath, he will demonstrate in DC the political power that the Association and he has. I am sure we will have an interesting leadership meeting connecting mostly with political actors from the USPTO, the government and probably the Congress.
Even though the negativity, I like the political focus of the CEO because I am attracted to politics but I am not sure if everyone is aware of the direction that the Association is taking.

Author: Alvaro Ramirez Bonilla
Founder & CEO of B&R Latin America IP LLC

Thanks Alvaro, keep in touch.

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