25 March, 2020
During the past few weeks, since we announced the postponement of our 2020 Annual Meeting in Singapore, the International Trademark Association (INTA) has been continuously monitoring the global coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and diligently working to come up with the best option for an Annual Meeting this year. Throughout this process, the health and safety of registrants, staff, vendors, and the community at large has been of paramount importance.
Today, we would like to inform you that we will be holding INTA’s 2020 Annual Meeting in November in the United States.
Given that the 2020 Annual Meeting will now take place in November, we will not hold a stand-alone 2020 Leadership Meeting, but rather we will combine the Annual Meeting and Leadership Meeting this year. The dates, venue, and registration timeline will follow soon.
While we originally had intended to reschedule the Annual Meeting for May or June, and had planned to launch registration a few weeks ago, we held off because of the fast-moving developments and escalating uncertainty of the public health crisis. We believe that delaying the Meeting until November is the most viable and most judicious decision at this time.
As you can imagine, we have been facing an unprecedented and difficult challenge. As such, we apologize that the Association had paused its communications these past few weeks regarding rescheduling of the Annual Meeting. However, there are significant logistics and nuances to consider when arranging a meeting of this size and scope—complicated by the unfolding developments with COVID-19, including travel bans, states of emergency, and restrictions on large gatherings. We appreciate all the time and effort spent by potential host cities in exploring whether they could accommodate our Meeting.
We thank you for your patience and support, and we look forward to seeing you at the Annual Meeting/Leadership Meeting in November. Again, details will be forthcoming. Please watch for communications from us or visit www.inta.org.
As always, we hold in our thoughts all those affected by COVID-19, and we wish all of you good health. Health and safety is our number one priority.
Etienne Sanz de Acedo
Chief Executive Officer
