Unveiled yesterday after two years in development, INTA’s 2022–2025 Strategic Plan is a major project that outlines the Association’s goals for the next four years.

The new Strategic Plan builds on successful initiatives implemented in the current 2018–2021 Strategic Plan and expands the Association’s reach into other areas. Its strategic priorities will include building a better society through brands and supporting professional development of brand professionals. This is in addition to its core trademark-related policy issues tied to promoting the value of brands.

“This new plan reflects how we listened closely to our members and stakeholders around the world,” said 2021 INTA President Tiki Dare, vice president and associate general counsel, Oracle Corporation (US).

“We looked into the future of the intellectual property (IP) community by gathering lots of stakeholders through our think tanks and other efforts. I’m tremendously proud of how many people we reached and the diversity of insight we received,” she added.

During Visioning for the Future: INTA’s 2022–2025 Strategic Plan yesterday, at which INTA leadership unveiled the new Strategic Plan, INTA Chief Executive Officer Etienne Sanz de Acedo said the development of the Plan is “a very serious exercise that takes a lot of time.”

Mr. Sanz de Acedo praised Ms. Dare and INTA President-Elect Zeeger Vink, IP director at MF Brands Group (Switzerland), who were “instrumental” in the Plan’s creation, and acknowledged the work of INTA’s entire Planning Committee.

Incoming INTA President Mr. Vink, whose one-year term starts in January 2022, said the success of the Plan would in part be the responsibility of the Association’s committees.

“We need to make sure the committees, which are the core elements of how our Association functions, start developing activities that are in line with this Strategic Plan. I’m looking forward to working with the committees on that,” said Mr. Vink.

In developing the Plan, a process which began in 2019, participants explored three main questions: What are we not doing today that we should be doing? What are we doing now that we need to improve? What are we doing that should stop because it is not adding value for INTA members?

The results include an updated mission statement, which now reads: “The International Trademark Association is a global association of brand owners and professionals dedicated to supporting trademarks and complementary IP to foster consumer trust, economic growth, and innovation, and committed to building a better society through brands.”

Informing all Association activities and engagements of the next four years, the Plan contains three strategic directions:

1. Promote and reinforce the value of brands;
2. Build a better society through brands; and
3. Support the development of IP professionals.

These will be backed by an Implementation Plan containing four new implementation programs and 29 projects dedicated to ensuring the 2022–2025 Strategic Plan becomes a reality, Mr. Sanz de Acedo explained.

Promote and Reinforce the Value of Brands

Under the Plan’s first objective sit four subobjectives aimed at championing the value of brands to businesses of all sizes, consumers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers throughout the entire brand life cycle.

Of the nine projects that will drive these subobjectives, anticounterfeiting, enforcement, international harmonization, and Internet policy are “evergreen priorities,” explained Mr. Vink.

The Plan elevates brand restrictions as a key priority, along with other issues such as public health policy, IP policy, and the valuation and commercialization of brands.

“This shows how INTA continues to broaden its substantive and geographic scope to cover issues of increasing importance to brand owners globally,” Mr. Vink said.