INTA Announces Prestigious Volunteer Awards During Leadership Meeting in Miami

Miami, Florida—November 15, 2022—The International Trademark Association (INTA) today announced the recipients of its 2022 volunteer awards, including the President’s Award, INTA Service Awards, and Tomorrow’s Leader Award.

The global association of brand owners and professionals announced the winners of the prestigious awards during the 2022 Leadership Meeting, taking place this week in Miami, Florida. INTA volunteers and leaders from around the world have gathered in Miami to advance their committee work and the Association’s overall mission and strategic objectives, participate in an advanced educational program, and connect face-to-face in various Business Development activities.

“With more than 1,600 registrants, this is INTA’s largest-ever Leadership Meeting,” noted INTA CEO Etienne Sanz de Acedo. “INTA is a member-run organization, and the tradition of volunteering is alive and well within our community. The volunteer awards serve to celebrate this tradition and the volunteers and members whose dedication and subsequent accomplishments stand out in the intellectual property (IP) field. Congratulations to all the winners.”

The President’s Award is bestowed annually on one or more individuals from one or more member organizations who have, over the course of their careers, made a lasting impact on INTA and its mission and who have had a profound impact on the global trademark community.

This year’s recipients are Dale Cendali, Partner at Kirkland & Ellis LLP (New York, New York, USA) and Mario Soerensen Garcia, founder and managing partner at Soerensen Garcia Advogados Associados (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil).

Ms. Cendali has served INTA for more than two decades, including on the Board of Directors and as INTA Counsel from 2010 through 2011, and as Founding Chair of the Copyright Committee in 2016. In an extraordinary achievement, she took the important first steps to help change a U.S. Copyright Office rule that disallowed copyright protection for designs that serve as logos. She has built an important legacy within the global Intellectual Property community and has litigated IP issues before the U.S. Supreme Court.

“INTA has been almost magical. I learned about trademark law and how that law is made, on both a domestic and international level. I also have had the opportunity to make wonderful friends from all over the world, some of whom have become wonderful clients,” said Ms. Cendali. “I have been proud to give back to INTA, sharing my own expertise in real time, addressing concrete problems from my leadership positions on committees and task forces. Getting involved with INTA was one of the best decisions I have ever made.”

Mr. Soerensen Garcia has been a committed and active INTA member for more than 20 years, acting as an effective changemaker within the Association, with a nuanced understanding of the issues, an ability to move ideas forward, and a gift for inclusion. A member of the Board of Directors from 2010 through 2013, and Co-Chair of the 2015 Annual Meeting, he has also served in various capacities on committees, including the Alternative Dispute Resolution Committee, Leadership Development Committee, and the Building Bridges Committee. As an energetic and intentional Association ambassador, he has facilitated interactions between INTA and the Inter-American Association of Industrial Property and Pharmaceutical Trade Marks Group. His efforts are always steeped in enthusiasm and focused on moving individuals and the IP community forward, gathering all to feel included.

It is in this spirit that Mr. Soerensen Garcia accepted his award, saying, “This is the most important achievement of my professional career, not only for the recognition of the effort I put into the Association but also because my attempt to join and promote people was noted and rewarded. I always admired INTA, its environment, its welcoming community, and its constant pursuit of quality. The more united and diverse we are, the better we will be. We do not make friends—we find them, and without INTA I would not have found several of my best friends!”

INTA’s service awards are given in three categories to recognize individuals who provide exemplary service to the Association.

The 2022 recipients of the Advancement of Association Objectives Award are Margaret Baumgartner, Associate General Counsel, Intellectual Property & Product at Genesys Cloud Services, Inc. (Menlo Park, California, USA) and Jay Myers, Partner at Seyfarth Shaw LLP (Atlanta, Georgia, USA), who won the award together, and Marina Perraki, Partner at Tsibanoulis & Partners Law Firm (Athens, Greece).

Ms. Baumgartner and Mr. Myers are both members of the Leadership Development Committee. Together they have used their professional networks to implement the third pillar of the 2022–2025 Strategic Plan—Support the Development of IP Professionals—by securing experienced, professional speakers to help members develop new skills—in particular, the dynamic skills of leadership. Their efforts brought new and accomplished speakers to INTA’s Leadership Labs and Bootcamps. These events were well received and resulted in exciting learning opportunities for the membership and raised the bar for the ways INTA supports its members to pursue excellence in all aspects of their work.

Ms. Baumgartner commented on the pleasure she takes from her efforts: “In winning this award, I am humbled and honored that they felt my contribution impactful. I am happy to be giving back to a greater community that has taught me so much over the years.”

Mr. Myers offered his thoughts on this recognition: “INTA has allowed me to develop and nurture so many friendships with colleagues around the world. While it is no doubt primarily a professional Association, INTA provides so much more than that in terms of personal enrichment, career development, and cultural exposure I would not have otherwise had the benefit of.”

Ms. Perraki has worked with the International Amicus Committee since 2016, rising through the ranks to chair the Europe Amicus Subcommittee during the 2020–2021 term. During her tenure, the subcommittee filed a remarkable twelve amicus briefs in Europe, including the first to come before the EUIPO’s Grand Board of Appeal. Actively involved in the drafting of all memos and briefs submitted to the Executive Committee during our last term and as the Vice Chair of the International Amicus Committee, Ms. Perraki proactively monitors case law in Europe and keeps the subcommittee’s members motivated and focused.

Upon winning the award, Ms. Perraki remarked, “When I was writing my PhD dissertation on trademark dilution, I came across the important work of INTA in amicus briefs before the U.S. and European courts and bodies. I always admired the high quality of those briefs, and I agreed with the position they proposed. It was a dream come true, when, years later, I was asked to join the International Amicus Committee and then to take on the great challenge of chairing the European Subcommittee.”

INTA’s Members for a Better Society Award was bestowed upon Fiona Scott, LLM student at Nottingham Law School (Nottingham Trent University, Nottingham, United Kingdom). A member of INTA’s Brands for a Better Society Committee since its inception in 2020, Ms. Scott has served on the Programming Subcommittee and, later, on the Project Team for the Building a Better Society Through Brands educational programming track for INTA’s Annual Meeting, and her work has stood out for its thought and effort. Ms. Scott designed, developed, and moderated an excellent session titled “Partnering for Change: How Brands Help Grow Minority and Women-Owned Businesses,” which focused on the particular challenges and opportunities minority and women-owned businesses face today. Beyond her own session, Ms. Scott brought her unique perspective and insights, as well as helpful, constructive, and creative input to all the sessions in the Building a Better Society Through Brands track.

“I was thrilled to see that ‘Build a Better Society Through Brands’ was part of INTA’s 2022-2025 Strategic Plan, as it shows how crucial this work is for our industry. I’m proud to have contributed to this work even in a small way. Being involved with INTA and the Brands for a Better Society Committee inspired me to think more creatively about the brand space and how I want to contribute to the field, not just tomorrow but well into the future,” said Ms. Scott.

INTA’s Membership Champion Award was given to Shailendra Bhandare, Partner at Khaitan & Co (Mumbai, India). Mr. Bhandare has supported the growth of INTA’s corporate-facing and corporate-engaging activities in India. Since 2015, he has played—and continues to play—an active role in spearheading initiatives and creating and executing events specifically tailored for existing and potential corporate members in the country. Despite Mr. Bhandare’s outsized efforts, he is self-effacing, believing that the Association’s strength lies in unifying the membership through the pursuit of shared objectives.

“In reflecting on my journey from my first Annual Meeting to becoming a committee member for the first time, to the joy of becoming a committee chair, to my first Leadership Meeting, to feeling the sense of achievement being part of a team of stalwarts, I realize how positively INTA has been in shaping who I am today,” said Mr. Bhandare.

The Tomorrow’s Leader Award recognizes the future of IP and encourages young trademark practitioners to participate in and contribute to the Association by recognizing the outstanding performance of two young professionals with less than five years of experience in the field of IP. This year, these two young professionals are Isabella Estabile, attorney at law at Kasznar Leonardos Intellectual Property (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), and Emilie Feil-Fraser, a lawyer and trademark agent at Seastone IP LLP (Vancouver, Canada).

Ms. Estabile, recently honored as a “rising star” by Leaders League, focuses her career on biodiversity matters and supporting the interaction of companies with indigenous/traditional people living in different regions in Brazil, such as the amazon, and territories demarcated by the Brazilian Indigenous Foundation, drafting agreements to authorize the use of their name, image, and voice, as well genetic resources associated with traditional knowledge, in addition to assisting with legal certifications and approvals to enter those territories. A member of the Brazilian Industrial Property Association, Ms. Estabile has also played a key role in developing important IP-related legislative changes in Brazil, as coordinator of the advocacy committee.

“Empowering people to know their rights and, consequently, to generate a positive impact in the world has been my mission,” Ms. Estabile explained. “Winning this award is an amazing opportunity for me to get involved in INTA, which has meant the concretization of my most genuine dream: to become a lawyer who plays a positive role in society. As part of this community, I will be able to achieve this goal and make a difference.”

Emilie Feil-Fraser has established herself as a voice for female entrepreneurship in Canada, doing all she can to attract, nurture, and empower women-led businesses and women entrepreneurs as clients, focusing on their trademark rights. She is also active in the Canadian cannabis legalization movement, directing her efforts on the emerging trademark issues as they relate to standardizing, defining, and asserting trademarks regarding cannabis strain names.

“As a recipient of the 2022 Tomorrow’s Leader Award, it is such an honor to know my work in these areas resonates with others. I am so excited to become more involved with INTA and give back to an international community that does so much for our profession,” Ms. Feil-Fraser said in response to winning her award.

About the International Trademark Association
The International Trademark Association (INTA) is a global association of brand owners and professionals dedicated to supporting trademarks and related intellectual property (IP) to foster consumer trust, economic growth, and innovation. Members include nearly 6,500 organizations, representing more than 34,350 individuals (trademark owners, professionals, and academics) from 185 countries, who benefit from the Association’s global trademark resources, policy development, education and training, and international network. Founded in 1878, INTA is headquartered in New York City, with offices in Beijing, Brussels, Santiago, Singapore, and the Washington, D.C., Metro Area, and a representative in New Delhi. For more information, visit inta.org.

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