International Trademark Association to Head to Singapore for 2023 Annual Meeting

New York, New York, May 12, 2022—The International Trademark Association (INTA) has announced that it will hold its 145^th Annual Meeting—the world’s largest event for brand owners and intellectual property professionals—in Singapore from May 16 to 20, 2023.

This marks the second time INTA will be hosting its Annual Meeting in Asia and the first time in Southeast Asia.

INTA CEO Etienne Sanz de Acedo made the announcement during the Association’s 2022 Annual Meeting Live+, which took place from April 30 to May 4. The event drew nearly 7,000 professionals from 130 countries, participating in person in Washington, D.C., or on the Meeting’s virtual platform.

Pre-sale registration for the 2023 Annual Meeting Live+ is now underway, through May 13, for INTA members who registered for the 2022 Annual Meeting Live+. The pre-sale offers a 10 percent discount on the early-bird registration fee for the in-person Meeting and the ability to access the Association’s hotel block system one day in advance of other registrants. General registration will open in January.

For the 2023 Annual Meeting Live+, the Association will again present a hybrid format, combining in-person and virtual educational programming and Business Development opportunities so that registrants can choose the format that best fits their professional and personal needs. The in-person gathering will be at the Marina Bay Sands Singapore.

The Meeting will take place Tuesday to Saturday, deviating from the Annual Meeting’s traditional Saturday to Wednesday format. The May 16 to 20 dates worked best given venue availability, the thousands of expected registrants, and timing around major and religious holidays.

INTA held its first-ever Annual Meeting in Asia in 2014—the 136th Annual Meeting—in Hong Kong SAR, China. After that successful event, INTA’s Board of Directors approved a rotation strategy to host the Annual Meeting in a location outside the United States every third year.

The Association had planned to bring the large-scale event to Singapore in April 2020, but it switched to its first-ever virtual joint Annual Meeting and Leadership Meeting in November 2020 due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Subsequently, in November 2021, INTA again held its Annual Meeting virtually, complemented by small in-person mini-conferences in three cities.

“We are thrilled to be going back to Asia. Singapore stands out as a strategic location with a vibrant business-friendly environment, making for the perfect climate to discuss intellectual property,” said Mr. Sanz de Acedo.

“Our hope is that our choice of locale for 2023 will draw more of our members and other stakeholders from Asia who could not attend this year’s Meeting largely due to ongoing pandemic-related travel restrictions. It presents an enormous opportunity for them and others to reconnect with colleagues and experience the camaraderie and engaging activities that thousands of registrants encountered last week,” he added.

Regarded as a hub for innovation, Singapore has experienced one of the most rapidly emerging economies of the past 50 years. It is home to a wide range of global giants and large regional companies, including trademark-intensive industries that contribute significantly to gross domestic product and comprise a sizable percentage of exports.

INTA, with a growing international membership now spanning 165 countries, has had an Asia-Pacific Representative Office in Singapore since March 2016. In Asia-Pacific, INTA has nearly 600 member organizations representing more than 3,100 individuals, including brand owners from major corporations, small- and medium-sized enterprises, and law firms.

About the International Trademark Association
The International Trademark Association (INTA) is a global association of brand owners and professionals dedicated to supporting trademarks and complementary intellectual property (IP) to foster consumer trust, economic growth, and innovation, and committed to building a better society through brands. Members include nearly 6,500 organizations, representing more than 34,350 individuals (trademark owners, professionals, and academics) from 185 countries, who benefit from the Association’s global trademark resources, policy development, education and training, and international network. Founded in 1878, INTA, a not-for-profit organization, is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Beijing, Brussels, Santiago, Singapore, and Washington, D.C. Metro Area, and a representative in New Delhi. For more information, visit inta.org.