Elevating IP Professionals at the 2025 Leadership Meeting

Karen Brennan (CKE Restaurants, USA)

This November, INTA’s leadership and member volunteers will converge in Hollywood, Florida, USA, for the 2025 Leadership Meeting. This Meeting comes at a critical time for INTA, as the Association prepares to both transition to a new committee term and implement a new strategic plan in 2026. The Meeting will offer a robust slate of educational sessions, Idea Exchanges, Leadership Labs, and Business Development opportunities set against the vibrant backdrop of one of the Sunshine State’s most dynamic multicultural communities. 

Jonathan Clegg (Cleveland Scott York, United Kingdom)

In a conversation with the INTA Bulletin, 2025 Leadership Meeting Co-Chairs Karen Brennan (CKE Restaurants, USA) and Jonathan Clegg (Cleveland Scott York, United Kingdom) share their vision for a Leadership Meeting that will tackle some of the global issues impacting intellectual property (IP) professionals today, provide practical knowledge of emerging technologies, and equip incoming committee leaders with skills to ensure a successful start to the new committee term. 

What is the strategic vision guiding this year’s educational program and how does it reflect the evolving needs of INTA’s global membership?
Karen Brennan: Our overall goal is to offer meaningful and top-of-mind content at a level that’s appropriate for the Leadership Meeting and also look at how the current state of the world impacts IP. This approach is also meant to align with INTA’s new 2026–2029 Strategic Plan and overall vision.  

The program is designed to elevate brand professionals into strategic IP advisors. It’s equipping them with tools and insights to serve as trusted counsel to their clients and organizations.  

Jonathan Clegg: Another goal of the program is to deepen expertise in IP areas beyond trademarks. While trademarks, of course, remain central to INTA’s mission, the curriculum of this Meeting will expand into adjacent areas of IP and business to reflect the increasingly interdisciplinary nature of brand protection and enforcement.  

There will also be sessions that explore the complexities of multi-jurisdictional legal systems. These sessions will focus on practical strategies for managing global trademark portfolios and enforcement challenges. This is also reflected in the prominent position that emerging technologies occupy in the program. The obvious example is AI, but there are other areas of technology which are advancing apace as well. They’re also present in the sessions that we’ve put together. 

KB: We’ve tried to take a global view, but we also want to provide sessions that meet the CLE requirements that a lot of the U.S.-based attorneys need. We hope to strike a balance between addressing worldwide issues and providing those relevant CLEs. 

Jonathan, what makes this INTA event unique? And why are you excited to be co-chair of the 2025 Leadership Meeting?
JC: This Leadership Meeting comes at a very exciting time, but also quite a challenging time. It’s exciting because the advance of technology is really significant at the moment, and this comes through in the program that we’ve put together. These technologies are a top-of-mind concern for many IP practitioners, but at the same time there are a lot of practitioners out there who’ve not yet fully engaged with these technologies. They’re aware of them and they talk about them, but one of the exciting things about this Meeting is that it’s introducing more granularity and more of the practical aspects of embracing these technologies.  

Our content will really help raise engagement with the technical space. That’s exciting to me because there’s a real sense of advancement at an exponential pace. It’s a great time to be co-chairing a Meeting like this.  

At the same time, the geopolitical landscape is changing, too. We don’t always talk about this at INTA events, but at the moment, there’s a lot of change going on which is affecting business in many parts of the world, and there are also parts of the world where it’s becoming very difficult to get on with business because of geopolitical distractions. We have a session, The Modern-Day Dilemma: Global Trade Challenges for Brand Owners, which addresses these issues, and I think it’s going to be fascinating. We’ve got a great panel lined up, and it’s a macro issue that deserves a place at the table at this Meeting.  

I’m excited to be a co-chair of this Meeting because it’s a great honor, apart from everything else. This is a high-level Meeting with many experienced trademark professionals, and it’s fantastic to be co-chairing the event with Karen. The Leadership Meeting always provides a great opportunity to reconnect with friends and colleagues, and to meet new people. Like the Annual Meeting, the Leadership Meeting also has an amazing international flavor. All of these things play into why I’m so pleased to be involved in leading this event. 

Karen, as a corporate member, how do you benefit from participating in the Leadership Meeting?
KB: I agree with Jonathan that it is such an honor to co-chair this Meeting because of the amazing people that we have on our project team. I love being part of this team and bringing the in-house perspective.  

In-house attorneys often have a broad scope of responsibility, which doesn’t leave us with time to really dive into emerging legal issues and decisions. I rely heavily on outside counsel for that. The program that we’re putting together really gives in-house counsel an opportunity to take that deeper dive.  

I also love the collaborative nature of Leadership Meeting. We get to meet with our friends and colleagues and have really good conversations both inside and outside of the sessions. The collaborative nature of the Meeting allows for meaningful exchanges with external counsel and peers, fostering a better understanding of how outside counsel partners operate, which in turn strengthens my ability to manage the relationship efficiently and effectively. 

The global context of the Meeting helps us benchmark our strategy against international standards, learning from the experience of others, especially in jurisdictions with different enforcement mechanisms and regulatory frameworks. It enriches my ability to anticipate risks and protect my company’s brand assets and work more proactively with my outside counsel. I think all in-house counsel who attend will have a similar experience. 

INTA members are currently in the process of applying to committees for the 2026–2027 Committee Term. How can attending Leadership Meeting help prepare members who’ll be joining a new committee in the new year?
KB: The Leadership Meeting is meant for current committee members, so everybody there is actively engaged in a committee already. That in and of itself is a good starting point. It provides a community of individuals with firsthand knowledge as to what’s going on within their committees that can be shared with other registrants who may be interested in those committees. There are opportunities both in sessions and in more casual settings, to learn from others about what each committee does and what you might be doing when you join that committee.  

There are also sessions geared towards registrants who are interested in more of a leadership role in their committees, including the Leadership Labs and Leadership Training presented by the Leadership Development Committee. I’m currently on the Leadership Development Committee and I love all of the content they put on at Leadership Meeting. Both sessions are designed to assist committee chairs, vice chairs, and subcommittee chairs with becoming more effective leaders through interactive, think-tank style sessions, which are great opportunities to learn about other committees from the current leaders and members. Committee chairs, subcommittee chairs, and project team chairs can attend these sessions and learn from other leaders.  

As the second year of the committee term enters its second half, why is now the moment for INTA members to lean in—and what might they miss if they don’t?
JC: This Leadership Meeting is the last face-to-face opportunity for committees to meet before there’s a change of personnel, so there’s a number of reasons why it’s good for INTA members who are involved in committees to attend. It’s a great opportunity for members to set themselves up for success in the next committee term. It’s critical for the efficiency and effectiveness of committee work that when the terms change, the outgoing leadership leaves the work in a good state for the new group coming in. There’s something really satisfying about creating a strong end to a committee term. 

Hollywood, Florida, offers more than just sunshine. What makes it a meaningful backdrop for this year’s Leadership Meeting—and how does the location support the event’s goals?
KB: It’s an excellent location right between Miami and Fort Lauderdale, which are two major cities with international airports, allowing easy access for all our international registrants. These cities are also large business hubs that we hope to draw dynamic speakers from.  

It’s also home to a very diverse population, including communities with roots in Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, and others. It’s a very multicultural area with a multitude of diverse dining and nightlife options.  

JC: Networking is such an important aspect of the Meeting, whether you’re making new contacts or just spending time with people you already know well. Hollywood is full of great places to take people out for a drink or dinner. It’s a great venue, especially for those of us from colder climates looking for some sunshine in November. 

What educational session or other activity are you looking forward to at the 2025 Leadership Meeting?
JC: Like Karen, I’ve also served on the Leadership Development Committee, and one of my favorite sessions is the Leadership Labs. They’re kind of like a focus group. People just come and share their experience, so you get to hear about the differences in how various committees are run and the challenges they must overcome. There will invariably be people there who’ve got some insight because they’ve had a shared issue on another committee. These are positive discussions, but they’re also honest discussions. They’re one of the things I try to sign up for each year.  

KB: I agree with that one. I love the Labs and think that it’s particularly relevant at this Meeting since we’re about to enter a new committee term. It’s a really good time to get pointers and hear from committee leaders about what has gone well, or what hasn’t, and what they hope to achieve over the next few years. 

I’m also very excited about the educational sessions we’re putting on because we have really found some expert speakers. There’s a practical session on AI called Revolutionize Your IP Portfolio with AI: Strategy and Client Value that will really help us understand what AI can do for us in our day-to-day work.  

We also have a session on dupe culture called Navigating the “Dupe” Dilemma: Protecting Your Brand in the Age of Imitation. Dupes are everywhere right now, and there’s been a recent lawsuit from Lululemon getting attention in the media lately, so that’s highly relevant. We’re also covering greenwashing in the session Sustainability and IP: Aligning Brand Protection with Environmental Goals. I’m really looking forward to all these sessions.  

JC: I’d like to go to every single educational session! I’ve never done that before at an INTA event, but they all look really good and are tailored to a sophisticated audience. In short, I’m looking forward to all of it! 

Learn more and register for the 2025 Leadership Meeting. 

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