INTA for small business

I have just returned from the INTA meeting in Orlando. When I worked for a large firm I had to write a report for the committee that paid the bill. It was never easy. As the meeting gets bigger (attendance broke 10,000 for the first time this year) the possibilities of making fruitful new contacts diminishes. A modest number of meetings with loyal clients makes it worthwhile. I also attend the educational sessions in the hope of education.

INTA is an organisation for trademark owners. Lawyers attend as hangers on, while the owners experience a parallel universe.

What I learned this year:

• The core members don't think trade marks stop at indications of origin and want to cover all manner of personal brands, marketing devices (eg hashtags) and merchandising rights within the remit of trademark law
• Associates of associates don't count to some brand owners. Their briefing sessions/receptions/awards are for those they directly instruct.
• Large brand owners are very fond of service providers that provide cheap infringement monitoring services and just love using cheap and effective take down services
• Registration is becoming an ever easier, more automated process but do remember class headings only cover what they say
• 3D printing wont bring about the demise of intellectual property but there is a book I could buy that says so - it was a very slick and enjoyable presentation
• The significance of the EU TM reforms 

Guy Heath reviewing some EU law

The best sessions as usual were the surveys of the year's case law from the USA and Europe. The European session had no chair (actually neither did and chairing seems to be a dying art). It would have been useful to manage the interruptions from the floor. Its nice to know that folk are listening, but it loses the rest of the audience.


Either INTA or the speakers do not believe in making slides or materials available. Do you remember the days when you got a lever arch folder full of course notes, some of which were really good articles? I should be able to replay recordings of sessions from the meeting portal but this image is the most common

There is a similar one for all the presentations I tried.

Both EU IPO and WIPO gave excellent presentations on Sunday morning - the only crowded room sessions I attended.

Obviously the best reception was the intimate Tweetup which provided an hour or two's respite from the humidity and some genuine human contact.

European Case Law Review 2014

Guy Heath

One of the most valuable sessions in San Diego was the European case law review, a swift canter through the key cases of 2014. Clearly a huge amount of work had gone into the final selection so it was dissapointing not to have any handouts for further perusal on the plane home. This year the INTA app promised handouts and a discussion capability, but it delivered a sparse selection of speaker bios instead. Nevertheless INTA has published in its Reporter a valuable digest which you can download here. I reccommend you do so as its beautifully organised by topic and provides national cases as well. No trademark agent should be without it.  Thanks Guy. We would love to have the slides too.

INTA Badging Fiasco

Yesterday I received my joining instructions for the INTA Annual Meeting in San Diego. INTA is an

organisation for brand owners but the majority of its profits come from the lawyers who attend the annual meeting. These people are presumed not trustworthy and are liable to try and swap badges or gain entry to the exhibition without paying. Awful people obviously. I seem to be one of them.

This year there are no guest tickets. On registration we were invited to pay additional sums $100 for our guests to attend events like the Welcome Reception. Yesterday I was informed that there would be no separate ticket for my guest so presumably he will need to be by my side at all times to ensure he is not ejected by the fearsome security. The $100 price is stated to cover ">Opening Ceremonies and Welcome Reception Guest Ticket — Opening Reception Ticket" but it omits the Keynote Address. This is going to be interesting. I am making this post so that those of us who have genuine guests (spouses) can enjoy both keynote address and meet up to enjoy the reception.
 
I hope nobody booked an excursion for an unaccompanied guest, as there will have to be a fight over who gets the badge.

Exhibitors will not enjoy any footfall (or even a bit of help with setting up or taking down their stands) from guests this year either.


I remember fondly the years that badges were sent out in the post. Even with a 9am opening on Saturday I bet there will be a queue. I had not planned to be in San Diego on Saturday as I had not realised there would programming that day so that is one queue I won't join.  If you are staying in the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina you are forbidden from meeting anyone without a badge. Hotel staff have presumably been instructed accordingly.

Free-riding is a bad thing but I do like a little trust. As a solo practitioner with no colleagues, having a guest with me helps a lot, buy hey ho, he will just have to hit the shops or the game. Maybe we should form a group of lonely would-be guests.

Still we attend the meeting for the educational events. The final programme is now on line and available on the App if you can remember your password. 245 Associate Solo Practitioners and me and my co-Blogger Jeremy @IPkat will be there, so lets hope the ticket barriers don't prevent us meeting up.

Sally Cooper in Munich finding that Small is Beautiful

Munich ? December ? Trade Marks ?

From Heather Cowper

But surely Munich = EPO ?

And surely Munich / December = Christmas Markets ?

YES - but Munich in December in 2014 was logo host-City for INTA’s last Conference of the year : “When Trademarks Overlap with Other IP Rights”. The Conference took place in the nicely-named district of Arabellapark. As cold and dense fog were the order of the day, around 350 or so persons eschewed walks in the park – they sensibly stayed indoors and diligently followed proceedings. This is true. From 9.00am on Monday 8th to 6.00pm on Tuesday 9th the focus of interaction was the Conference Hall. A heavy first day worked through “Trademarks and Copyright Law” and “Trademarks and Designs” and a heavy second day worked through “Trademarks and Geographical Indications” and “Trademarks and Unfair Competition Law” and “Trademarks and The Right of Publicity”. For me, the glue that held these Sessions together was the format of a full-time academic beginning the Session and “perspective” Speakers following. There was surprisingly little repetition and a lot of learning and a lot of fun : well done to all Moderators ! Along the way I learned about the Skydisk of Nebra  decision from Germany and the Tripp Trapp chair decision from the CJEU  and Darjeeling Lingerie (a Decision in favour of the Indian GI for tea in Taiwan but a Decision against the Indian GI for tea in Israel) and was given a wake-up-call on what we all (as IP lawyers) owe to the Paris Convention (1883) and the Berne Convention (1886).

Mr Campinos Thanks to Mladen Vukmir

The Conference ended – appropriately - with Antonio Campinos (President of OHIM) looking forward to (amongst many other things) a reduction in fees for users of the Fast-Track Trade Mark Application procedure. And slotted into proceedings was a short (VIP Interview) Session on Trademarks and Patents : yes – we were in Munich after all ! And right at the beginning / present throughout was Jeremy Phillips. He introduced himself as the gypsy violinist – in attendance as Keynote Speaker trusting thereby to enhance the experience of those partaking of the (Conference) feast. He reported just about all of the Conference proceedings on the IPKat blog “in real time” (thereby – to the relief of this writer - making further reporting on content redundant). Indeed, I suspect Jeremy pressed the “post” button on his Address “Overlaid, Overlegislated and Overloaded: Trademarks in the Twenty-First Century” before his Address began (so quickly did it appear on Twitter #INTAMunich) !.

For me, there were two “take-aways”. The first was the pleasure of being at a Conference where trade marks were “a given” : the focus was firmly on the many other IP rights that work alongside trade marks (sometimes overlapping / sometimes not) and Speakers from across the world should be congratulated on underscoring the significant “education” task confronting INTA’s Related Rights Committee. The second is in my notes of the concluding remarks of OHIM’s President Antonio Campinos : that “the majority of businesses are small – not large”. Thank goodness someone said this!

Getting the most from your INTA membership in Washington

As the deadline 17 February 2012 for the early bird registration for the INTA annual meeting in Washington approaches all the currency speculators amongst you will be wondering whether to invest now in the $970 registration fee if you are a member or $1495 if you are not as against the on-site registration cost of $1495/$1995.  INTA  means the International Trademark Association, so all pure patent practitioners can zone out now. Now that INTA have introduced a solo membership fee of just $425 it does make sense to become a member.

Attending the INTA annual meeting  will give you a bird's eye view of the entire global trademark   profession in all its glory. I don't just mean by being able to overlook the exhibition as my snap above from the Boston meeting two years ago shows.  Attendance does, however, mean travel and accommodation costs that need to be justified. There are plenty of CPD points. Many old hands will proudly say that they never attend any of the sessions.  This is a waste. In the past many sessions have been poor quality or badly prepared. Why anyone  with such an international stage would not make the best effort to provide a genuine educational experience, I don't know but it does seem to have been the case. This year I hope INTA will have all presenters on their top form.

Networking is the obvious objective.   This is hard work and needs preparation.  Fix up some meetings in advance but best of all prepare some conversational gambits. It is not, repeat not, a good idea to ask when the person you have just met is going home. Nothing is more calculated to show a lack of empathy and a desire to move on.  Nevertheless you will probably be saying it yourself  unless you school yourself with some debating topics that allow your new friend to show off a little of their own trademark knowledge or lack of it.  

Being on a committee is considered by many to be a useful perk of membership. This is something of a lottery, but a good committee will get you working together with a random group of other members and an excellent opportunity to get to know them better. Getting a late seat is a bit difficult but a new member can ask.

As a member, you are also entitled to join a social network  MY POWERFUL NETWORK which hasn't quite taken off yet.  Hopefully, as people prepare for the meeting, some of the discussions may get livelier. 

Receptions are the lifeblood of the annual meeting.   As a common member you only get invited to the welcome reception and the last night (but you cannot expect to do much networking there -  though if you make some friends you may be able to consolidate relationships).    

Be wary of those who boast that they have been to 6 receptions a night. There is no point.   One good quality invitation will do. I am hoping that there will be a Meet the Bloggers reception as that is one of the best quality ones you could ever hope for as all Bloggers are by definition top people.

INTA: are you going alone?

At MTB, after a couple of drinks everyone
starts to look like this :-)

If you're heading for this year's International Trademark Association in San Francisco and you don't have the security and comfort of the company of your colleagues since you're the sole representative of your firm or office, remember that you're always welcome at the annual Meet the Bloggers (MTB) informal get-together.


This year's MTB takes place on Tuesday 17 May from 8pm till whenever at Swig, 561 Geary Street, San Francisco.  It's free and it's a great place to do some top-class networking too. 

Foreign Relations for Trademark Attorneys

Thanks to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office for permission to use this picture of William Hague, the UK's New Foreign Secretary with US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton in Washington. Mr Hague's travel arrangements to the US appear to have been trouble free, the 450 UK trademark attorneys heading for the INTA Annual Meeting in Boston. may not be so lucky between ash clouds and the BA strikes.

Why are we off to this meeting - what is the point? For myself  I hope to meet and greet clients and associates with whom I work. This is an opportunity when so many congregate in one place -  too many perhaps as there are over 8000 registered already. Finding a random person without a prior arrangement is going to be hard.

This year I am hoping to attend the sessions and catch up on the chasms that divide US and European practice. Co- blogger Jeremy Phillips is chairing CW03 – Regional Update – Africa on Wednesday Morning at 10:15 if the fast and furious classic annual review of US Federal Case Law and TTAB practice is not for you.

The Exhibition hall has some interesting prospects and this year guests are allowed in. They will be easy to spot as their badges are blue.  Here I shall find the OHIM stand and learn some more about the reasons behind the idiosyncrasies of their IT system and the ongoing delays in the Opposition Division

I may chat with one or two attorneys who are representing other sides in oppositions. I suspect it may not be a good year for that as I detect a hardening of hearts.

As to the party circuit, it seems that this year the guest lists for receptions and parties are being curtailed so maybe I will get more rest than in former years. Alternatively it may mean less manic circulation and more quality time at the parties I do attend. Of course Meet the Bloggers on  May 24 at 8pm at Lucky's Lounge, Boston is likely to be a very high quality event. See you there.

INTA lets down its Paying Members

I know that many SOLO members find INTA membership at US$850 well beyond their means. In fact one of us regularly attends annual meetings at the non-member rate because that makes better economic sense and the other member benefits are insufficient for a SOLO - unless you are lucky enough to be a Professor when you can join for a mere $75.

I was delighted, therefore, that INTA was organising a Roundtable in London. Something to justify that huge spend to my virtual financial controller. I got an email on Tuesday and replied on Wednesday. So slothful, I admit it. It turns out this event on the protection of well-known marks is limited to 20 and despite my suggestion there are no plans to move to a larger venue.

I absolutely applaud the desire for delegate participation, but limiting delegates to 20 when there are no less than FOUR high quality presenters seems unrealistic. I suspect the email I received was sent at least to the 273 member organisations in London, possibly to the much greater membership in the United Kingdom

According to a recent mailing I got from ITMA the UK IPO say the skills of trade mark agents in the UK have been overtaken. Come on INTA do your bit to help. The picture to the right is Richard Heath of Unilever who is this year's President of INTA. I hope some of the Unilever attornies managed to get a place at the roundtable as they have many well-known brands to protect.

INTA Follow up

Having barely recovered from the INTA trip - what a busy few days those were - I am now preparing for the June networking trip to LA which the Law Society has organised. At least this time I will know to take more than one box of business cards - as had to have more cards couriered over to INTA!
I had intended to post a blog from INTA but there was no time. Now having returned I can't write something about my experiences of INTA as am still seriously short of time.... But am making time to post this blog in case any readers are able to help with suggestions for following up with all those contacts made at INTA.

For example, does anyone know of a good card reader, or at least pros and cons to look out for when buying one? If so, I would be really pleased to hear from you as it could potentially save time - mine and anyone else's who is in the same boat. In the meantime, just wanted to thank Jeremy for hosting the Solo IP meeting at INTA, as it proved to be an excellent chance to meet and talk to some of the readers of this blog.

INTA for first-timers

Taking up Shireen's challenge, I thought I'd say a little about the International Trademark Association's Annual Meetings. Since they are massive and potentially ruinous events, they are best planned ahead. The following are a selection of random points that may be of help:

* don't waste your time worrying about which events, talks and receptions are best in terms of maximising your chances of networking -- with 8,000+ people around, all of whom have a high degree of interest, commitment or expertise, you can hardly fail to meet and talk to the 'right' people;

* it is regarded as quite normal at the INTA Meeting to do some things that one might not do at home. For example (i) speaking to strangers and (ii) wandering round the streets wearing a large badge bearing the INTA logo (right) and one's own name;

* if you're working solo and not as part of a large firm, remember to factor in enough time between meetings etc to freshen up and/or take the occasional break;

* if you've nothing particular to do and nowhere in particular to go, the hospitality area near the exhibits is a good default place -- there are always people wandering round, coffeeing and often looking for a chat too;

* make sure you have enough pens, a roaming phone, detachable adhesive notelets, paracetamol, throat lozenges and other staples -- it can be disruptive and annoying so sort these things out in the middle of INTA when there's so much else going on;

* have three or four prepared professional trade mark-related conversation-pieces lined up for when you run out of chatlines concerning the flight in, the hotel accommodation, whether you've been to Berlin before, the weather etc.;

* have opinions on some mainline trade mark topics even if they don't impinge immediately on your work or your interests. These topics might include parallel trade, cyber/typo-squatting, internet auctions and comparative advertising;

* if necessary, make discreet notes on the backs of incoming business cards after you've spoken to someone - but don't trust your memory since you may find that conversation fatigue sets in and you can't remember who said what;

* bring plenty of business cards (not that so many people use them these days) and always have something to read -- it's often difficult to navigate efficiently and remain punctual, so you'll often by kept waiting by people whom you've arranged to see;

* make sure your website is up-to-date before you leave for INTA;

* the larger 'fringe' hospitality events are notionally private; it is however a widely-accepted convention that anyone can gate-crash so long as he/she leaves a card (the efficacy of these events is measured in terms of how many cards are gathered in);

* always be positive: it creates an impression that you are on top of things;

* be a good listener: it can be much less exhausting than always talking, and the person you're listening to will think you're really good for as long as you keep listening with the attentive face you learned to wear at tutorials as a student;

* don't schedule any work that requires serious thought and deep commitment for the day after your return.

If anyone else wants to add any comments and suggestions below, please feel free to do so.

INTA Berlin May 17-21

I am attending INTA for the first time this year, and am looking for advice from those who know more about these things, whether the Gala dinner is worth attending. Perhaps my fellow bloggers who are experienced INTA attendees might like to write a post for those of us who need to know how to approach this annual marketing event. I am keen to meet with people who will be there – possibly in the designated Hospitality Areas, so if you are interested in setting up a meeting with me why not email me here