INTA expands Washington, D.C. team

May 03 2015

INTA has recently hired two senior staff members in its Washington, D.C. office. Deborah Cohn, formerly Commissioner for Trademarks at the USPTO, has joined as Senior Director of Government Relations while Lori Schulman, most recently General Counsel for the Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD), became Senior Director of Internet Policy.

Cohn has worked closely with INTA and trademark practitioners for the past 10 years. In her new role, one of her focuses will be the new Congressional Trademark Caucus, established at the end of last year, which aims to advance the education of the U.S. Congress on trademark issues and the importance of trademarks.

Schulman has worked in trademarks since the late 1980s. Her first job was as a trademark examiner at the USPTO and she subsequently worked at Texaco, March of Dimes, AOL and the Water Environment Research Foundation before joining ASCD.

In recent years, she had become closely involved in the work of ICANN. She was also on the advisory board for the .org domain.

Schulman has been a member of INTA for 18 years. She was a Board member and helped to establish the non-profit category of membership, and also hosted the Leadership Meeting in Miami in 2013.

She told the INTA Bulletin last month: “One of my first orders of business is to gather a group of concerned members to think about what a strategy will look like in the short and long term for INTA with respect to Internet issues.”

Cohn said: “I have worked closely with INTA throughout the last 10 years, so I know a number of INTA members. I’m really looking forward to working closely with everybody. I’ve been completely impressed by INTA members’ enthusiasm in helping governments, particularly the USPTO, with a number of projects to increase quality and to help foster a better examination system in the United States.”

Key U.S. IP Associations Discuss Possibilities for Cooperation

On April 24, 2015, INTA joined with three other IP user associations in Washington D.C. to launch a new initiative to coordinate advocacy efforts in the United States on behalf of brand owners. Members of INTA, the American Intellectual Property Law Association (AIPLA), the Intellectual Property Owners Association (IPO) and the American Bar Association - Section of IP Law (ABA-IPL) discussed how the key U.S. IP associations dealing with trademarks can create the strongest voice possible on behalf of trademark owners and practitioners. Possible areas for cooperation include coordinating comments to the USPTO, working with the Congressional Trademark Caucus—which was launched in September 2014—to educate the public and sharing results of international meetings. The next such meeting is scheduled to take place later this year during the TM5 summit in Washington D.C.