Patents at INTA? ‘It’s something we are thinking about’
The International Trademark Association has long flirted with other areas of IP. Peter Scott asks Etienne Sanz de Acedo if ‘INPA’ is on the horizon.
One of the curiosities of the IP world is that there is not really an equivalent of the International Trademark Association (INTA)—a truly international professional association with global influence and presence—in the patent arena.
At last week’s annual meeting in Singapore, patents were unsurprisingly low on the agenda, if not entirely absent. The meeting saw a patent practitioner's reception, and, as ever, the exhibit hall featured many companies pitching patent-related services, but there might be room—and an appetite—for a more concerted focus on its IP cousin.
Having helped INTA expand its influence and international reach, could this be a new frontier for the association under Etienne Sanz de Acedo’s leadership?
“I'm smiling, because I think it's a very intriguing idea,” INTA’s CEO told WIPR. “I think INTA has the potential to also deal with that.”
‘We have the know-how’
There have been no decisions on how and when it might happen, he added, and it hasn’t reached the level of the INTA board of directors, who would ultimately make the decision, “but it's something that some of us are kind of thinking about.”
“We have companies that are members, we have the know-how, in terms of being an international organisation, we have the connections,” he said.
And while he acknowledges that it's not necessarily the same people within the member companies that are dealing with patents, and trademarks, he noted that “in many companies, we're seeing [that] patents and trademarks are reporting to the same kind of function, to a chief IP officer.”
The association has form when it comes to other areas of IP and its flagship annual meeting is often an important event for non-trademark practitioners.
“The reality is that we've been expanding our scope,” said Sanz de Acedo. “Next term, we'll have a trade secrets committee, and I think that's extremely important. Back in March, we had a conference in New York about data, and whether data is some kind of an IP asset.
“And I think that's really our role. On the one side, we're a facilitator of best practices, and on the other side, we're a forward thinking organisation that is always brainstorming on the future of IP.”
EUIPO role
Of course, the elephant in the room is Sanz de Acedo’s candidacy for the executive director post at the EU Intellectual Property Office. Would these and other ambitions survive de Acedo’s departure?
He is unequivocal: “Of course! I read once, something that I really like, that the role of a CEO is to prepare the organisation for his or her departure, and to make sure that the next CEO is even better, and can bring more to the organisation,” he said.
“And you need to always think about what you can do for this organisation to make it even better.”
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