Two days ago I posted this blog article inviting readers to share their plans for the important intellectual property meetings in the US that are scheduled for spring of 2020. Are people planning to attend the meetings? Are people planning instead to stay home? In this blog article I provide a brief summary of the responses, and you can see the full report here.
The INTA meeting. By way of background, it was announced in 2019 that the 2020 annual meeting of the International Trademark Association would take place in Singapore. On February 14, 2020, INTA announced that the meeting in Singapore in 2020 would not take place. INTA said it would relocate the 2020 Annual Meeting to a date in May or June and a venue in the United States, with more details to be announced later.
Respondents were asked:
Did you buy a badge for at least one of the previous three INTA (International Trademark Association) annual meetings? (2017 in Barcelona, 2018 in Seattle, 2019 in Boston)
and:
INTA has said the 2020 annual meeting will be set for a city in the US some time in May or June of 2020. Do you plan to buy a badge for that meeting?
Of the 63 respondents who answered the first question “yes”, here is how they answered the second question:
- 7 – I bought a badge for the Singapore meeting and I plan to attend the US INTA 2020 annual meeting
- 15 – More likely than not I plan to buy a badge for the US INTA 2020 annual meeting
- 19 – I have not yet decided whether to buy a badge for the US INTA 2020 annual meeting
- 22 – No I do not plan to buy a badge for the US INTA 2020 annual meeting
It seems to me that the first and second responses amount to about the same thing, meaning that about 35% of those who bought a badge for one of the most recent three INTA annual meetings plan to buy a badge for the US INTA 2020 annual meeting. If these respondents were reliable predictors for the universe of potential attendees, then perhaps the INTA planners could look at the average number of badge purchasers over the last three years, multiply that number by 35%, and this would be an estimate of the number of badges to be purchased for the US INTA 2020 annual meeting. Another 30% have not yet decided what they will do, and the remaining 35% say they do not plan to buy a badge for this year’s meeting.
What can be said about the 36 respondents who answered the first question “no”? Are there people who did not buy a badge for any of the most recent three INTA annual meetings, who nonetheless plan to buy a badge for the US INTA 2020 annual meeting? One respondent said yes. Four respondents had not yet decided. The remaining 86% say they do not plan to buy a badge for the US INTA 2020 annual meeting.
Again I must emphasize the number of respondents is small and there is no way to know how reliable any prediction could be. Having said this, if one were to use these numbers as a predictor, the number of badges purchased for the US INTA 2020 annual meeting might be around 35% of 11,000 or about 3850 badges, or higher if some of the “undecided” respondents were to choose to purchase badges. One can make a prediction with modest confidence that attendance would be lower in 2020 than in previous years.
USPTO Design Day. Respondents were asked:
Did you attend USPTO Design day at the Alexandria patent office in 2017 or 2018 or 2019?
and:
What can you say about your plans for attendance at the USPTO Design Day at the Alexandria patent office on April 23, 2020?
Of the 22 respondents who answered the first question “yes”, here is how they answered the second question:
- 9 – I registered and I am likely to attend
- 7 – I registered and have not yet made up my mind about whether I will attend
- 8 – I have not registered and am not likely to attend
Of the 77 respondents who answered “no”, here is now they answered the second question:
- 2 – I registered and I am likely to attend
- 1 – I have not yet registered but I hope to attend
- 1 – I have not registered and have not yet made up my mind about whether I will attend
- 73 – I have not registered and am not likely to attend
Respondents were also asked:
Did you attend USPTO Design day at one or more of the satellite patent offices (Detroit, Denver, San Jose, Dallas) in 2017 or 2018 or 2019?
and:
What can you say about your plans for attendance at the USPTO Design Day at one of the satellite patent offices (Detroit, Denver, San Jose, Dallas) on April 23, 2020?
Three respondents answered the first question “yes”. All three of them answered the second question “I have not registered and am not likely to attend.” Ninety-eight respondents answered the first question “no”. Here is how they answered the second question:
- 89 – I have not registered and am not likely to attend
- 6 – I have not registered and have not yet made up my mind about whether I will attend
- 1 – I have not yet registered but I hope to attend
- 1 – I registered and have not yet made up my mind about whether I will attend
- 1 – I registered and I am likely to attend
In recent years the in-person attendance has always sold out. In-person attendance has been several hundred people, completely filling the main auditorium at the USPTO’s Alexandria office. These numbers suggest that in-person attendance might be much smaller in 2020.
On March 11, while this survey was taking place, it was announced that USPTO 2020 Design Day is canceled. See blog article.
AIPLA 2020 stated Spring Meeting. By way of background, AIPLA has three stated meetings per year – the annual meeting in October (always in the Washington, DC area), a mid-winter meeting (always in some warm part of the US), and a spring meeting. In 2019, it was announced that the 2020 Spring Meeting would take place May 6-8 in San Antonio, Texas.
Respondents were asked:
Did you buy a badge for the AIPLA spring meeting in 2017 (San Diego) or 2018 (Seattle) or 2019 (Philadelphia)?
and:
What can you say about your plans to buy a badge for the AIPLA spring meeting in San Antonio on May 6-8, 2020?
Of the 13 respondents who answered the first question “yes”, here is how they answered the second question:
- 2 – I bought a badge and have not yet made up my mind about whether I will attend
- 3 – I have not yet bought a badge but I hope to do so
- 3 – I have not bought a badge and have not yet made up my mind about whether I will buy a badge
- 5 – I have not bought a badge and am not likely to do so
Of the 87 respondents who answered the first question “no”, here is how they answered the second question:
- 1 – I bought a badge and have not yet made up my mind about whether I will attend
- 2 – I have not yet bought a badge but I hope to do so
- 5 – I have not bought a badge and have not yet made up my mind about whether I will buy a badge
- 79 – I have not bought a badge and am not likely to do so
Clearly one should not assume that an extrapolation from a mere 13 respondents is a strong predictor. Nonetheless the responses suggest that attendance at the AIPLA 2020 Spring Meeting might end up being smaller, perhaps much smaller, than in past years.
ABA-IPL annual meeting. The American Bar Association has a Section of Intellectual Property Law. The Section has its annual meeting every spring in the Washington, DC area. In 2019 it was announced that the ABA-IPL meeting for 2020 would take place April 1-3, 2020 in Washington, DC. Respondents were asked:
Did you buy a badge for the ABA-IPL annual meeting in 2017 or 2018 or 2019 in Arlington, Virginia?
and:
What can you say about your plans for attendance at the ABA-IPL annual meeting in Washington, DC on April 1-3, 2020?
Of the nine respondents who answered the first question “yes”, here is how they answered the second question:
- 3 – I bought a badge and I plan to attend
- 2 – I bought a badge and have not yet made up my mind about whether I will attend
- 2 – I bought a badge but am not likely to attend
- 1 – I have not yet bought a badge and have not yet made up my mind about whether I will do so
- 1 – I have not bought a badge and am not likely to do so
It must be appreciated that “nine” is a very small number of respondents, and thus that very little confidence should be placed on an extrapolation from these numbers.
Of the 91 respondents who answered the first question “no”, here is how they answered the second question:
- 86 – I have not bought a badge and am not likely to do so
- 5 – I have not yet bought a badge and have not yet made up my mind about whether I will do so
Again keeping in mind the small number of responses, it is only speculation but I can guess that the attendance at the ABA-IPL 2020 annual meeting might end up being smaller than in past years.
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