IPTA The Institute of Patent and Trade Mark Attorney

Date: March 20, 2024 - March 22, 2024

Time: 8.00am

Location: Hotel Realm
18 National Circuit, Barton ACT 2600

The IPTA 2024 Annual Conference, including the 105th Annual General Meeting, will be held in Canberra at the Hotel Realm from Wednesday 20 to Friday 22 March 2024.

Canberra is home to IP Australia who features prominently in our business program. IP Australia is hosting patent and trademark sessions at IP Australia, featuring a "show and tell" on arrival, small group tours of IP Australia with Examiners, followed by a Q&A session and morning/or afternoon tea. These IP Australia sessions will be additional to our business program which is a solid one, packed with meaty interesting topics, and following our recent format of Wednesday being the trademark day, Thursday being the day of overlapping content or general IP interest and Friday being the patents day.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has dominated the airwaves in recent years and there appears little in the life of the modern attorney that is not presently being or has the potential in the very near future to be affected, by AI. As such, given the importance of AI in our world, we have made it bit of a feature of the IPTA 2024 Annual Conference.

A highlight of the conference is a presentation by David S Gooder, Commissioner of Trademarks at the USPTO who will share the USPTO's views on the issue of unqualified agents and the integrity of the US IP system. Other highlights of the program include keynote presentations by Harry Knight, Xero Limited and Hon Steven Rares KC, NSW Bar. There are also two panel discussions on the topics of "Artificial Intelligence: Challenges to the IP system" and "Harvesting the IP fruits in the Agriculture Sector: A conversation about some well-known and less known IP rights". There is an Ethics session on the topic of "Scope of Privilege" by Greg Chambers of Phillips Ormonde.

Corsearch attendees: Craig Bailey