INTA’s leader on D&I, Dubai and the EUIPO top job

19-05-2023

Peter Scott

INTA’s leader on D&I, Dubai and the EUIPO top job

As he approaches 10 years as CEO, INTA’s Etienne Sanz de Acedo sits down with Peter Scott to discuss new frontiers for the association—and perhaps also for himself.

At the opening ceremonies of the International Trademark Association (INTA) Annual Meeting 2023 in Singapore, INTA CEO Etienne Sanz de Acedo spoke about the importance of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) to the association and observed that “we embrace [it] every single day in every initiative that INTA is taking.”

With that in mind, it was striking to hear him announce in the same speech that INTA will be taking its annual meeting in 2026 to Dubai, a place in which homosexuality is illegal, and which, until 2020, banned Israeli citizens from entering.

Sanz de Acedo pushes back strongly against the suggestion that there is a conflict in these positions. “First, we take DEI very, very seriously. And you've seen all kinds of initiatives that we have taken—probably more than any other organisation in the field,” he says.


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