INTA reports

Just back from a typically busy INTA schedule, Afro Leo now issues his annual report on three gatherings for this blog:

First is the African regional update which was back on the agenda in 2012 after a surprising omission the previous year and a call to action from this blog. The panel consisting of Gift Sibanda, Mike Sevant and the animated Prof Ephraim Ngwafor was chaired by Marco Van Der Merwe in front of audience of around 65 in hall 147 AB of the Convention Centre in Washington. Afro Leo went into tweet mode to cover the speed dating session with over 50 African countries, and the flow can be located at @afroip or by this search ''#INTADC #Africa'' in the twittersphere. For previous Africa Regional Updates covered by this blog in 2008, 2009 and 2010 click here, here and here.



Mark Mordi's disquiet over the Forum



The second gathering was one called by Prof Bankole Sodipo in a room in the Embassy Suites to discuss the future of the now cancelled African IP Summit/Forum. The turnout was impressive not by the amount of people (roughly 60 odd) but because almost all of them were from Africa. The initial discussion was dominated by outrage at the lack of communication and transparency between the 2011 meeting (see here) and notification of Forum late last year by the CLDP which took most of those present, including Afro Leo, by complete surprise. The meeting settled after the CLDP's Nnamdi Ezera offered up explanations. Bankole then outlined the following suggested mode of action:

• Communication of further attempts to arrange the Forum would be communicated via email to those who presented business cards and via "captains" for each country (selected from those present)
• The three gentlemen (Sibande, Sodipo and Mallowah) who addressed the meeting would form a secretariat
• Stephen Mallowah would take the lead in disseminating information
• a meeting planned for September in Tanzania would be a further step toward developing an agenda by Africans for the event

Nnamdi explained that if CDP's efforts to plan the ill fated 2011 Summit/Forum could form the basis of a future event, he would be happy and gets credit for sponsoring the room to host the meeting.



Spot the Leos (pic TTAB blog)

The third gathering of note was the 8th "Meet the Bloggers" event which took place last Monday night from 8-10 pm at Hill Country Barbeque Market. Marty Schwimmer (http://www.trademarkblog.com/), Ron Coleman (www.likelihoodofconfusion.com), Erik Pelton (http://www.erikpelton.com/), and John Welch (www.TTABlog.com) of hosted the event which attracted over 200 registered attendees. Afro-IP received a public mention from Marty which made this Leo purr loudly and Jeremy jump up and down. Thanks for the beer gents!

Finally, just a note from @_INTA ''President Mazzorro: INTA will be increasing its focus in Africa''. Life is good.