Creating a global online IP community

WIPR Leaders is a trusted global community of leading IP professionals, inspired by personal connections made at events like the INTA Annual Meeting, says Baron Armah-Kwantreng of WIPR Rankings.

For the WIPR Rankings team, the approach of the International Trademark Association’s (INTA) Annual Meeting in London in 2026 signalled a looming deadline on the next edition of Leaders— WIPR’s annual global list of leading IP lawyers. INTA’s conference represents the largest annual gathering of IP lawyers on the planet, with over 10,000 participants touching down and arriving from continents and countries near and far.

The Leaders platform, now in its ninth year, continues to evolve. Its purpose is inspired by my previous trips to INTA in Atlanta in 2024, and to San Diego in 2025, where I revelled in making new IP contacts across the world.

Each time, I returned to London inspired to recreate the INTA experience of meeting a trusted global IP community in person in an online community via WIPR Leaders. A community whose members leading in-house and referral counsel would be comfortable trusting with their most significant work.

Recommendation leads to result

At INTA in San Diego, I met a US lawyer who asked for a recommendation for a lawyer for a significant client in another jurisdiction. The US lawyer was not getting the expected service from the big name firm in the country and needed a reliable alternative that could be sensible on fees.

At a rooftop law firm reception with drinks flowing and a background DJ, I met a lawyer from that country and mentioned my enquiry. Something about the exchange made me trust him. So I took a punt, introduced him to the US lawyer, and they met for a coffee during the event.

I caught up with the US lawyer recently and discovered that the meeting had turned into a working relationship—they are now on their third piece of work together and the client is delighted. This is why Leaders exists.

With the continued support of the global IP community, the WIPR Rankings team will make these recommendations digital and accessible online. Research methodology The deadline for this article arrived as the Rankings team were knee-deep in collating this year’s research findings.

The established methodology is to receive an external recommendation from another lawyer who has witnessed that person in action and is willing to recommend the individual to a client or referral lawyer.

Research respondents are given a link to a referee sheet they can use to name referees who can be contacted for feedback. Law firm rankings veterans will be familiar with the phenomenon of “referee fatigue”.

With the proliferation of rankings groups, some in-house counsel can be over-contacted for this feedback. As a result, we give respondents the option of three categories of headings: Direct Clients, Referral Lawyers, and Lawyers on the Other Side.

The hope is that across these categories, respondents will be able to identify sufficient individuals who can attest to the quality of their work product.

It’s all in the buckets

Here is a peek behind the curtain in how we collate the mass of information from respondents. We drop the responses into different categories, or ‘buckets’, that we use to knit together the final constituents of Leaders.

These buckets are: Survey Results: Members of WIPR’s database are invited to respond to a questionnaire to recommend themselves, a firm colleague or a peer at another firm.

Firm Responses: Firms that have identified their leading individuals for review. Research Individuals: Independent research on potential members of Leaders conducted by the Rankings team.

WIPR Rankings 2025 Individuals: Ranked individuals from the 2025 round of private practice research are included in Leaders. We want to continually improve Leaders and we are particularly keen to showcase the best lawyers from each firm.

Each country list should represent the brightest and best IP talent on offer. Look out for the Leaders 2026 results on the WIPR website and do get in touch with suggestions on how we can improve Leaders in 2027 and beyond.

Access WIPR Leaders via the Rankings tab at www.worldipreview.com 

Baron Armah-Kwantreng is Rankings editor at WIPR. He can be contacted at: barmah-kwantreng@newtonmedia.co.uk