The competition is open to all students, practitioners, and academics interested in trademarks and trademark law. To be eligible to compete in the student category, authors must be enrolled as either full- or part-time law or graduate students. For students outside of the United States, university enrollment is acceptable. To be eligible to compete in the professional category, authors may be legal practitioners, business professionals or academics. No restrictions, such as level of experience or years in practice, apply.

• The judges reserve the right to withhold an award in any year in which none of the papers considered meet the high standards of the award.
  
  
• Eligible papers include both original unpublished manuscripts and published articles that are submitted to or otherwise come to the attention of INTA by Friday, January 16, 2009. To qualify, published articles must have been first published no more than one year prior to the January deadline.
  
  
• The subject of the paper should be trademark law or a matter that directly relates to or affects trademarks, and the paper must be a product of the author's original thought and scholarship.
  
  
• Papers will be judged according to the following criteria: nature, breadth, and timeliness of subject(s) addressed, originality of subject and of thought, extent of research and quality of writing.
  
  
• The entry must either be in the English language or be accompanied by a translation in the English language. All papers must be typewritten. Please include a cover page with your entry that lists the title of your paper, your affiliation and your contact information. 

  Papers should be submitted to:

  Ladas Memorial Award
  Attn: Carin Diep
  International Trademark Association
  655 Third Avenue, 10th Floor
  New York, NY 10017-5617 USA