Today we sit down with Xuefang Huang, Partner at our Beijing office to learn what's great about INTA.
What is great about INTA?
The great thing about INTA has to do with the fact that it is the largest annual gathering of trade mark practitioners in the world. Most firms of a certain size with international business, multinational companies with IP weight in their corporate assets, and national trade mark authorities attend INTA's annual meetings regularly. Thus, it is a centralised and expedited way to meet and connect with peers, clients, prospective clients and officials with similar objectives. Simply put, INTA's greatest advantage is the possibility to quickly build a network of contacts that is geographically and personally diverse.
What makes INTA different to other events?
INTA is unique in its size and variety, from private meetings with existing clients, to speed networking sessions to meet potential clients, to academic seminars on a wide range of topics. Moreover, INTA frequently changes the continents and cities where the conferences are held and there are locally related tours or cultural events, so for busy IP attorneys, the INTA annual conference also offers an opportunity to explore the unique sights and cultural attractions of different parts of the world while seeking and maintaining their business connections. An excellent example of this was INTA Barcelona 2018, as Gaudi's Sagrada Familia cathedral and the FC Barcelona, of which Lionel Messi played, delighted many IP attorneys outside of their official duties. In addition, for multinational IP firms like Marks & Clerk that have many international offices, INTA provides an annual opportunity for trade mark colleagues from different regional offices to meet face-to-face and get acquainted with each other. It is hard to imagine a scenario other than INTA that provides such a regular opportunity.
What is your favourite INTA memory?
My favourite INTA memory is everything surrounding the 2004 INTA annual meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. It was my first INTA and my first trip out of China, just a few years after I became a trade mark attorney. The entire trip around INTA was full of unexpected experiences for me. Whether it was the enlightenment of actually meeting and talking with foreign clients, the freshness of visiting their offices, the constant self-motivation of encouraging myself to talk to people, the stress of paying attention to table manners while dining with clients, or the surreal feeling of drinking a Coke next to a giant dinosaur fossil at a reception held at the Nature Museum, they were all very memorable. What was seen and heard at that first INTA conference planted the seeds for my decision to study IP law in the US and pursue a career in a multinational business like Marks & Clerk a few years later.
Details of our team of experts on the ground in Singapore along with the full event programme and a comprehensive guide to the region produced by members of the Marks & Clerk Singapore team can be found here.
Contact our team on inta@marks-clerk.com to set up a time to chat.
We look forward to seeing you there!