INTA Engages Global IP Community at WIPO General Assemblies

Last month, INTA President Elisabeth Stewart Bradley and INTA CEO Etienne Sanz de Acedo led a delegation to the General Assemblies of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Geneva, Switzerland.

INTA and WIPO have long collaborated on a range of initiatives to promote the value of trademarks and strengthen their intellectual property (IP) protection worldwide. As an accredited non-government organization (NGO) with observer status, INTA participates in WIPO’s committees and working groups. The WIPO Assemblies provide a rare and valuable opportunity to meet face-to-face with IP stakeholders from around the world, fostering direct, strategic dialogue.

The delegation also included INTA Past Presidents Dana Northcott (2024), Zeeger Vink (2022), David Lossingnol (2019), and Ronald Van Tuijl (2016); INTA Chief Policy Officer Heather Steinmeyer; and INTA Chief Representative Officer, Europe and IGOs, Tat-Tienne Louembe. Often splitting up to represent the Association, they held bilateral meetings with representatives of 29 national and regional IP offices across multiple regions:

Africa: the African Intellectual Property Organization, Egypt, Malawi, Morocco, South Africa
Asia-Pacific: Australia, Indonesia, Japan
Europe: Benelux, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom
Latin America: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay
Middle East: the Gulf Cooperation Council, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates

The discussions largely focused on capacity building, with each meeting tailored to the specific IP challenges and strategic priorities of the respective IP office. The delegation also met with judiciaries, customs authorities, and other enforcement bodies, recognizing the need to equip each stakeholder group with relevant tools, knowledge, and frameworks to effectively support national and regional IP ecosystems.

The growing recognition of IP as an asset was a recurring theme of these meetings, particularly in two key areas:

The intersection of IP and finance (including how IP can facilitate access to funding and the role of IP offices in developing effective IP-financing ecosystems); and
The importance of IP valuation within national IP strategies.

Other topics of discussion included INTA’s 2026–2029 Strategic Plan, recent Board Resolutions, INTA’s updated Guidelines for Trademark Examination, and opportunities to partner with IP offices on relevant workshops.

The delegation also met with WIPO Director General Daren Tang.

Beyond the WIPO Assemblies, INTA was honored to speak at the WSIS+20 High-Level Event 2025, which provided a platform for multistakeholder dialogue on progress and challenges since the 2003 Geneva Plan of Action. INTA contributed to several panels, including the Leaders TalkX session, “Local to Global—Preserving Culture and Language in the Digital Era,” which highlighted the importance of safeguarding cultural heritage and linguistic diversity amid rapid digital transformation.

INTA also attended key events throughout the week, including World Intangible Investment Highlights 2025, a WIPO-organized presentation of a global report on investment trends in intangible assets; the first meeting of the French-speaking Alliance for Intellectual Property, an initiative launched in 2024; and the annual WIPO–NGO Stakeholder Dialogue, where more than 60 NGOs came together to discuss salient IP issues.

In parallel, INTA hosted the latest meeting of the IPO of the Future Project, an ongoing initiative exploring how IP offices can strategically adopt and manage advanced information technologies to enhance service delivery and policy implementation over the next 10 to 20 years.

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Topics WIPO Delegations