Maximize Your Membership: Rachel Lodge Corrie

Rachael Lodge Corrie (Foga Daley Attorneys-at-Law, Jamaica)

For Rachael Lodge Corrie (Foga Daley Attorneys-at-Law, Jamaica), membership in INTA has both helped her personally and helped her firm. Personally, Ms. Lodge Corrie, an associate at the law firm, has garnered enormous opportunities for professional development and, as a bonus, has been able to pay it forward. The firm has benefited from participating in INTA committees, utilizing a wide range of resources, having the ability to develop an international network, and much more.

“The list of benefits is endless,” she said, “but it’s up to each person to make the most out of all that INTA has to offer.”

In an interview with the INTA Bulletin, Ms. Lodge Corrie expands upon some of the Association’s exclusive member benefits and how she and her firm maximize them.

How has being an INTA member helped you in your professional career?
INTA is well-known for providing networking opportunities to expand your business and client base. However, I’ve found the Association has provided me with even more opportunities for professional development and personal growth. From the numerous resources offered on the INTA website to volunteering on INTA committees, there is so much to be gained. I’ve been fortunate to come across many senior professionals who have offered quick words of advice that has stuck with me and influenced how I approach my career, and I constantly look to INTA for ways to improve myself professionally.

As a member of the Young Practitioners Committee, I’ve also felt fortunate to be able to pay it forward, through initiatives such as the Tomorrow’s Leader Award and events geared toward mentoring and helping young practitioners increase their knowledge and make the most of their membership.

INTA also provides several leadership workshops and is an advocate for diversity, equity, and inclusion—a cause which we should all care about. It’s easy for someone from a small island, a developing country, to get overlooked in a large international organization, but for me, that’s never been the case with INTA.

Apart from attending the Annual Meeting, how does your firm maximize its membership throughout the year?
Each of the firm’s partners serve on INTA committees and have been contributors to INTA publications, such as the Trademark Opposition Guide: Practice and Procedure Worldwide, one of the several Practice Guides available to members. Active engagement with the Association throughout the year has undoubtedly led to greater recognition for our firm on a more global scale by brand owners and our colleagues.

The firm benefits from the numerous resources INTA posts to its website, including the INTA Bulletin and podcasts which highlight important news and emerging trends of interest to the IP community worldwide. In our day-to-day practice, we have found the Practice Guides and The Trademark Reporter particularly helpful. We frequently use the Annual Reviews of Trademark Law from the EU and U.S. to guide our submissions in contentious matters and responses to Office Actions, as these decisions are persuasive in our jurisdiction. These resources also enable us to keep abreast of fast-paced changes in the trademark landscape around the world, which is critical to being best-in-class advisors to our clients.

Can you share an example of a challenge IP professionals and brand owners are facing, and how INTA is helping address that challenge?
Enforcement is one of the biggest challenges IP professionals and brand owners everywhere continue to face. For many countries, including Jamaica, the issue of enforcement is exacerbated by a lack of public awareness on the importance of IP rights and the dangers of counterfeit products. INTA facilitates and encourages dialogue on global IP enforcement issues, including counterfeiting trends, and continues to develop policies to support the harmonization of enforcement practices worldwide.

These policies are helpful in guiding brand owners, IP professionals, and other entities involved in enforcement, such as Customs and the police force, on how best to tackle these issues and what trends to look out for. For example, the Jamaica Customs Agency, the Jamaica Constabulary Force, IP professionals, and local brand owners were all able to benefit from a policy dialogue held by INTA’s Anticounterfeiting Committee, Latin America and Caribbean Subcommittee, in collaboration with the Intellectual Property Caribbean Association to promote collaboration on anticounterfeiting activities between Curaçao and Jamaica.

In sum, why should brand owners and IP law firms join the Association?
The numbers speak for themselves—with INTA’s membership comprising 6,500 organizations representing more than 34,250 professionals from 185 countries. Being a member of INTA allows brand owners and IP law firms to develop an international network of highly skilled and responsive professionals to assist in the protection and enforcement of their IP rights. In sum, INTA provides tremendous resources that everyone interested in brand protection can benefit from, ranging from the basics of trademark law to new and emerging issues in relation to the Internet of Things and data protection to more nuanced issues within the IP field such as genericide, nontraditional trademarks, and brands’ corporate social responsibility. The list of benefits is endless, but it’s up to each person to make the most out of all that INTA has to offer.

Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of this article, readers are urged to check independently on matters of specific concern or interest.

© 2022 International Trademark Association