New INTA president Evans outlines goals for 2015

Evans is associate general counsel at Adobe Systems, where he is responsible for legal and strategy issues relating to trade marks, copyrights, brands, domains and ICANN policy.

He takes over the role of INTA president from Mei-lan Stark, senior vice-president for intellectual property at Fox Entertainment Group.

In a message to INTA members, Evans outlined two personal goals for the year.

The first is to assist and train INTA’s volunteer leaders to help grow the association and bring it into the future. “This relates strongly to the fourth strategic direction of INTA’s 2014-2017 strategic plan, membership satisfaction, and will involve developing our volunteers’ ability to contribute to the association’s success and to further their own careers in the trademark community,” said Evans.

The second goal is to broaden the scope of discussions around trade marks to encompass brands.

“Trade marks have long served as the tools companies use to identify their brands,” said Evans. “As the concept of brands has expanded to include all sorts of emotional and social components, the role of trade marks has also expanded. When we work with trade marks, it’s important to remember all the associations that go along with the brand such as customer loyalty and concern about corporate social responsibility, for example. I look forward to exploring these ideas and to deepening our understanding about the role of trade marks and brands.”

Also taking office for INTA in 2015 are: Ronald van Tuijl of JT International (president-elect); Joseph Ferretti of PepsiCo/ Frito-Lay (vice-president and secretary); Tish Berard of Hearts On Fire Company (vice-president); David Lossignol of Novartis Pharma (treasurer) and David Fleming of Brinks Gilson & Lione (counsel).