How I Maximize My INTA Membership: Karen Holme

Karen Holme, Sunkist Growers, Inc., Valencia, California, USA

Karen Holme has been with Sunkist Growers, Inc. (Valencia, California, USA) for 14 years, where she oversees and maintains all aspects of Sunkist’s intellectual property (IP) assets. Prior to her tenure as manager of Sunkist’s IP department, she worked as a paralegal at California law firms.

Ms. Holme has been attending the INTA Annual Meeting since 2008 and has served terms on the Trademark Administrators, In-House, and Leadership Development Committees as well as co-chairing the Trademark Administrators and Practitioners Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, in 2017.

How has being an INTA member helped you in your professional career?
In my experience, there’s nothing comparable to the benefits that INTA has to offer to support, cultivate, and expand one’s professional career in the trademark sector. The Association provides abundant opportunities to grow and develop your network, whether you are in-house or in a law firm.

Speaking strictly from an in-house perspective, INTA membership has afforded me the opportunity to meet other in-house trademark professionals whom I may never have met otherwise, and to reach out to those contacts for solutions to very specific problems—whether it’s finding reliable counsel in a particular country where we were having challenges or engaging in discussions on substantive trademark matters. There’s a great deal of support on all levels to be found within the INTA family.

Apart from attending the Annual Meeting, how does Sunkist maximize its membership throughout the year?
There is, of course, a lot of very valuable information on the INTA website from which all members can benefit. Committee participation is a phenomenal way for organizations to maximize their membership by investing in the growth of their employees. Some of the most rewarding experiences I’ve had with INTA have been through committee participation, where I’ve been able to stretch myself professionally by taking on projects I would never otherwise have had the opportunity to undertake. This includes co-chairing a meeting and traveling abroad to England and Germany to speak about professional development. These experiences have ultimately made me a more confident professional and a more valuable Sunkist employee.

Can you share an example of a challenge IP professionals and brand owners are facing, and how INTA is helping address that challenge?
I think the biggest challenge that brand owners and IP professionals are facing right now is the same one that we’re all experiencing. The status quo is gone. Nothing is the same as it was a year ago. Globally, it seemed that our separation from each other increased in drastic ways, and while that may be true, it’s also true that we’ve been forced to find other ways to stay connected and to know that we’re all in this together. I feel a lot of gratitude for that. INTA was adaptable and reacted quickly to the changes and succeeded in offering alternative ways to keep and strengthen our all-important connections.

In sum, why should brand owners and IP law firms join the Association?
INTA has a wide variety of valuable offerings from business networking to educational offerings to professional growth opportunities to one-stop-shop IP information available on its website.

It’s hard to imagine what my professional life would look like now if I hadn’t become involved with INTA after joining Sunkist 14 years ago.

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