INTA’s Patents Committee Hits the Ground Running

Since its launch earlier this year, INTA’s newest committee is building a full slate of resources, research, and outreach for members working at the intersection of trademarks, brands, and patents.

The Patents Committee was formed to give INTA members a dedicated home for patent law, practice, and policy issues, and to connect that work with INTA’s broader trademark and brand community. In its first months, the Committee has moved quickly from introductions to action, setting priorities across its subcommittees and beginning several projects designed to serve members directly by providing practical guidance, educational resources, and a forum for exchanging perspectives on patent issues affecting today’s global intellectual property (IP) professionals.

Building the Foundation

The Patents Committee is led by Chair Christoph D. Schober, Partner at Fluegel Preissner Schober Seidel (Germany), and Vice-Chair Jacob Ewerdt, Senior Counsel, Global IP Policy, at Qualcomm Incorporated (USA). Together, Mr. Schober and Mr. Ewerdt have made significant progress in establishing one of INTA’s newest committees. Early work included briefing the INTA Board of Directors on the Committee’s objectives and introducing the Committee to the wider membership at INTA’s 2026 Annual Meeting, where it also debuted with a featured article in the Daily News.

The Committee has since engaged with counterpart organizations on the international stage, including a virtual meeting with the European Patent Office (EPO) on artificial intelligence (AI) and global patent-assignment issues. It gave opening remarks at the Annual Meeting’s Patents Series, took part in bilateral meetings with the EPO at the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) General Assemblies, and hosted a presentation from the African Regional Intellectual Property Organization (ARIPO) at the latest full Committee meeting in July.

That external engagement is feeding directly into two thought-leadership deliverables: a contribution to the EPO’s “Scenarios of the Future” project, offered at the invitation of EPO President António Campinos to inform the agency’s thinking on how Europe’s innovation ecosystem may evolve, and an internal “Future of Patents” report identifying emerging trends and opportunities across the Committee’s areas of focus.

Resources and Projects in Development

The Committee’s subcommittees each have projects underway for members. These include:

• The Strategic Resources Subcommittee (chaired by Margaret Baumgartner, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, IP and Product, at Genesys Cloud Services, Inc. (USA)), which is leading a Patent Cooperation Treaty System Analysis, examining what has worked well and where gaps exist relative to future needs, as well as curating content around geopolitical issues and their effects on patents.
• The Patent Protection Subcommittee (chaired by J. Ian Raisbeck, Partner at Raisbeck & Associates (Colombia)), which is developing a Patents Quick Guide, covering prosecution, litigation, and licensing. This is intended to be an educational resource based on member input, as well as a source of useful insights into future advocacy work.
• The Patent Protection Subcommittee is also developing educational material intended for INTA members, including a basic video course on patents and patent best practices for in-house counsel.
• The Patent Use Subcommittee (chaired by J. Kenneth Oh, Senior Foreign Attorney at Kim & Chang (Korea)), which is developing two companion resources: templates for patent litigation and patent licensing, both aimed at giving non-patent IP professionals and in-house counsel practical, jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction grounding. Additional topics are under consideration.
• The Patent Use Subcommittee is also partnering with INTA’s Commercialization of IP Committee on a Global Patent License Template for internal member use.

The Committee is represented on two cross-committee initiatives, INTA’s Advocacy Group Council and its AI Advisory Group, and is collaborating with the Trade Secrets Committee on guidance for choosing between patent and trade secret protection.

Looking Ahead

Several ideas are in early discussion for future development, including educational videos for in-house counsel on patent best practices and a jurisdictional-update newsletter covering new patent regulations around the world. The Committee will also present its progress to the Board this fall and gather at INTA’s Leadership Meeting in November to shape its 2027 agenda, including proposals for education sessions at the 2027 Annual Meeting.

Members interested in getting involved with any of these projects or in learning more about the Patents Committee are encouraged to reach out to the Committee’s leadership.

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.

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