Our Head of Brand Exploitation, Protection and TM Litigation in the UK, Kirsten Gilbert, is gearing up for her (lucky!) 13th trip to the International Trademark Association (INTA) 2024 Annual Meeting. We caught up with Kirsten to hear some of her favourite INTA memories, before she heads out in just a few days.
Why is INTA important to you?
INTA is the flagship conference for trade mark attorneys and lawyers and draws a huge audience of trade mark specialists from all over the world. You get to meet up with your clients, contacts, international colleagues and friends all in one place for lively discussion and debate about all things brand related. You get to exchange war stories of battles fought and won and exchange tips on dealing with the latest developments in the world of brand protection around the world from the practitioners who are actually at the coalface dealing with infringers.
Trade mark professionals have a different event they could attend every week somewhere in the world, what makes INTA a gold standard event for you?
While INTA is a five day conference with a complete programme of events for attendees, it is also unique for having so many adjacent events and meetings going on at the same time as the formal programme. It is often the case that you are busy meeting with clients and contacts from breakfast right through to after dinner drinks. The next day you get to do it all over again! While there is work done there is also an energy around the conference that you getting from meeting up with people face to face away from home. After the lock down years and the rise of remote working and Teams meetings the buzz of face to face meetings is even greater than before.
This will be your thirteenth INTA, you must have some incredible memories to share - does one stand out in particular?
I have so many memories of attending receptions in fantastic locations – palaces, art galleries, museums, bull rings, luxury car showrooms, Sea World! One reception that particularly sticks in my mind was in Orlando where the cocktail reception for a client was held on a floating dock in a lagoon. The setting was beautiful although the small signs around the edge of the dock warning us not to get to close to the edge as there could be alligators in the water added a certain excitement to proceedings especially as the night wore on and the reception got progressively more crowded. Fortunately, we only saw one alligator from a safe distance!
