INTA, Meet Patents. Patents, Meet INTA
Bringing an INTA Perspective to Patents
Chair of the new Patents Committee, Christoph Schober, explains how the Committee gives patents a dedicated home at the Association, applying its global perspective and bringing value to its members.
Patents have, of course, always been a major part of the intellectual property (IP) landscape. With the launch of INTA’s Patents Committee on January 1, 2026, patents now have a more visible and dedicated home within the Association.
The Annual Meeting in London presents the first opportunity to bring this new platform to life in person.
The Patents Committee broader purpose is to bring patent expertise into the Association’s wider work on IP, business strategy, and innovation, while keeping a clear focus on what is useful to members. It adds a new dimension to the INTA’s work: a forum dedicated to patent issues but approached in a distinctly INTA way.
That is what gives the Committee its particular character. It is not meant to replicate existing patent forums in another institutional setting. Its added value lies in bringing INTA’s own DNA into the patent space: international in outlook, practical in approach, and attentive to the way patents interact with trademarks, designs, copyright, trade secrets, and brand strategy.
Patents do not exist in isolation—they are part of a wider commercial and strategic framework. That perspective gives the Committee every prospect of becoming a genuinely distinctive one within the Association.
That message will resonate at the Annual Meeting. In his Daily Keynote on Tuesday, May 5, 2:45 pm to 3:00 pm, European Patent Office President António Campinos will speak on From Idea to Impact: Quality, Scale, and the Bundle of Rights—a reminder that, in an economy dominated by intangible value, patents, trademarks, and other forms of protection increasingly need to work together. That is precisely the perspective the Patents Committee is built to bring into INTA.
"The Committee is meant to do two things at once: support members concretely and shape a more forward-looking patent perspective within INTA."
-Christoph Schober | Fluegel Preissner Schober Seidel (Germany)
IP professionals from around the world have come to London not only to follow developments, but to understand what those developments mean in practice.
Patent issues are moving quickly—in artificial intelligence (AI), patent office practice, commercialization, valuation, freedom to operate, dispute resolution, and global policy.
What members need in that setting is more than legal doctrine. They need informed, practical guidance and a clearer sense of where the patent landscape is heading.
The Committee’s structure is built with exactly that in mind. Its three subcommittees—Patent Protection, Patent Use, and Strategic Resources—reflect both the natural structure of patent practice and the practical needs of INTA members.
Together, they cover the obtaining and maintenance of patent rights, the use and commercialization of patents as business assets, and the monitoring of key organizations, meetings, publications, and policy developments worldwide.
That work is meant to translate into tangible value for members. Planned projects include educational resources on patent portfolio management for IP owners, the basics of patent protection, patent commercialization and valuation, freedom to operate, alternative dispute resolution, patent office internals, and emerging topics such as AI-related inventions and inventorship.
The Patent Protection Subcommittee is also developing a Patents Guide, designed as a practical resource for members seeking clearer orientation in an increasingly complex field.
Alongside these practical tools, the Committee is pursuing broader strategic work.
One project, The Future of Patents, will explore longer-term trends, challenges, and opportunities shaping the patent landscape and help define where INTA can add value in the years ahead.
Another, a Patent Policy Gap Memo, will identify areas where existing policy positions or frameworks may not yet sufficiently address issues relevant to INTA members.
The Committee is meant to do two things at once: support members concretely and shape a more forward-looking patent perspective within INTA.
Those priorities are reflected across the wider Annual Meeting program. On Tuesday and Wednesday, May 5 and 6, the expanded Patent Series (see below)—seven sessions spanning portfolio management, patents as brands, standard essential patents (SEPs), cross-border disputes, AI and inventorship, geopolitics, and practical patent skills for non-patent professionals—underlines the growing relevance of patent topics within INTA’s educational offering.
Tuesday, May 5 10:05 am–10:55 am | Patent Fundamentals for Global IP Portfolio Management 12:00 pm–12:50 pm | Function to Fame: Patents as Brand Assets in the Consumer Market 1:00 pm–1:50 pm | Practical Insights for Brand Owners on Standard Essential Patents 2:30 pm–3:30 pm | Cross-Border Patent Disputes: Litigation, Jurisdiction, & Enforcement 5:00 pm–6:30 pm | Patent Professionals Network Reception
Wednesday, May 6 10:30 am–11:20 am | AI and Patents: Inventorship, Eligibility, and Beyond 12:15 pm–1:00 pm | Power, Patents, and Politics: IP Rights in a Geopolitical World 1:15 pm–2:00 pm | Leading the IP Charge: Strategic Skills for Non-Patent Professionals
Patent-Related Table Topics: Small-group discussions will offer members an additional forum for practical exchange. Together, the sessions, patent-related Table Topics, and reception give members a practical entry point into the topics shaping the patent landscape today.
Patent themes also run through other parts of the program: the Law & Policy Track, for example, features a fireside chat with senior UK judges Sir Colin Birss, Sir Richard Meade, and Sir James Mellor. The session, UK Judges on the Frontline: AI, Litigation Trends, and the Future of IP, takes place on Tuesday, May 5, 10:00 am to 11:00 am, and focuses on how AI is reshaping IP litigation and why the UK is emerging as a global hub for IP disputes.
Together with the Business of Intangibles Track and the Technologies Shaping the Future of IP Track, these sessions reflect how closely patent questions are tied to the wider IP and innovation agenda.
This Annual Meeting is therefore more than the Committee’s first in-person gathering. It will be the first real opportunity to turn structure into momentum, and planning into member value. In a fast-changing patent environment, that is no small thing.
In short, the Patents Committee is not intended to be just another patent forum. It is intended to be INTA’s patent forum—global in perspective, practical in focus, and useful to members navigating an increasingly complex IP landscape.
The Patents Committee is led by Chair Christoph Schober, Parter at Fluegel Preissner Schober Seidel (Germany), and Vice-Chair Jacob Ewerdt, Senior Counsel, Global IP Policy, at Qualcomm Incorporated (USA).
