The followers of Spicy IP would undoubtedly already be familiar with the name INTA, which stands for International Trademark Association, a not-for-profit membership association (having close to 6000 trademark owners as members) dedicated to the support and advancement of trademarks and related intellectual property as elements of fair and effective commerce. Time and again, INTA has brought forth several significant and informative discussions and programs on trademark law-related issues in the past, which have been announced/reported in this blog (see here, here and here).
For the benefit of the readers, INTA has come up with an annual calendar featuring the schedule of some of their soon-to-happen activities in the current year, so that the regular participants and the new ones can plan ahead.
The year is going to start with a one-day conference titled ‘Building Mega Trademarks’ on February 11, 2012 in the city of Gurgaon, near New Delhi, India. In this conference, leading trademark experts to corporate India will be brought for a discussion of best practices for creating, protecting and exploiting brands. The Managing Director of Reebok, India is going to be the keynote speaker at this conference. Five comprehensive panel discussions will include:
Strong Foundations: The Creation of a Successful Trademark
A New Blueprint: Trademarks on the Internet
Fortification: Protecting Your Brand Against Violations
Gaining Recognition: Well-Known Marks and Geographical Indications (GIs) and
Expanding the Model: Using Licensing and Franchising to Grow Your Business
The conference will be followed by a Pre-Annual Meeting Reception on February 13, 2012 at Ahemdabad, India.
The Annual Meeting, 134th of its kind, will take place between May 5 and May 9, 2012 at Washington, D.C. More than 9,000 intellectual property professionals will convene at this trademark event for networking, continuing legal education, and committee and client meetings and engage in skill-building workshops, industry breakouts, interactive table topics, and trademark law sessions focused on international topics. A novel feature of the meeting will be an exhibition hall boasting nearly 100 exhibitors debuting new products and services to help in brand protection.
On May 7, 2012, the India Reception at the Annual Meeting will take place in Washington, D.C., to be followed subsequently by two interactive In-House Practitioner’s Luncheons in India on June 23 and July 21 at Hyderabad and Bangalore respectively.
On September 10 and 11, INTA will host another international Trade Dress and Design Protection Conference at Copenhagen, Denmark.
The next Indian program of INTA will be on October 6, 2012 at Mumbai in the form of INTA India Seminar.
Indeed, October is going to be a busy month for INTA members this year, with the seminar being followed by a program on Trademarks in Business Transactions at Chicago, U.S.A. on October 11-12 and a Trademark Administrators Conference at Charlotte, U.S.A. on October 14-16. The U.S.A. run of INTA will continue with a Leadership Meeting being convened at Orlando on November 7-10. Finally, the year will be rounded up for INTA with an Anticounterfeiting Conference on December 3-4 at Istanbul, Turkey.
While all these programs appear to be promising avenues for lively discussion and exchange of ideas amongst academics, practitioners and other stakeholders on trademark law in particular, the readers of Spicy IP residing in India will undoubtedly be more interested to note that several of the programs have been scheduled in India this year (marked in bold), which augurs well for attention that the national trademark law scenario is attracting at present.
To know more about INTA events, including E-Learning programs, the readers can go here. Free registrations to the INTA India Seminar on October 6, 2012 at Mumbai can be obtained by becoming a part of INTA. For more information, readers are advised to contact Simran Daryanani from INTA at [email protected], whom the Spicy IP team thanks for sharing the annual calendar in advance.
