Carefully selected foreign attorney partners are important co-operation contacts in handling international IP assignments. For Berggren the annual INTA-conference is all about fortifying the network of associates and establishing mutual trust. This year’s center points of focus were bilateral meetings with attorney colleagues from USA, Russia, China, India, Korea and Japan.
"Trust is established in face to face meetings and also by actively following the partner’s business and how well they perform in their given assignments," states IP lawyer Tarja Tchernych, Vice President (Legal, Trademarks and Designs).
INTA Annual Meeting provides an excellent ground for the aforementioned. The Meeting comprises of nearly 10 000 IP professionals. This year the conference took place in San Diego 2.-6.5.2015. In accordance with previous years Berggren had its own reception at INTA, where our experts received and interviewed carefully chosen associate offices. This year the participants in INTA were in addition to Tarja Tchernych IP lawyer Erkki Holmila and Vice President (IPR Business) Mika Lehtinen with patent attorney background.
Quality of a trusted partner means reliability, certainty of delivery and correct service attitude
The most important attribute of an international associate network is not quantity but quality. Especially with the trusted associates, with close co-operation, the qualities of knowledge and services are the decisive criteria.
"To determine the level of quality we have created an instrument based on our own client service criteria. Via meetings and conversations we ensure that the trustworthiness of our associates as well as the certainty of delivery and correct service attitude are on a high level. A competitive price rate must not be forgotten either," says Tarja Tchernych.
A good opportunity to also evaluate the brands and reputations of other key players in the field of business
Reputation and brand are important when choosing associates. A business-oriented way of thinking is most welcome as well. These aspects can be observed in more casual reception events of different associate offices for example.
"In these events we meet both new and familiar colleagues and thus they grant opportunities of getting to know their personalities and interaction skills on a whole other level," says Erkki Holmila.
"Participating in events organized by the brand owners to their foreign agents and the meetings with the representatives of international clients are also very important in INTA," he says.
"INTA has clearly transformed from a trademark convention into an IP conference. Among the guests we noticed more patent attorneys from attorney firms and representatives who were in charge of both trademarks and patents," states Mika Lehtinen.
The change in profile is natural.
"Product development and brand control, such as patent- and trademark portfolios, form together an entity which is wise to be governed from a comprehensive overall IP view."
"Once again it was a pleasure to notice, how Berggren’s own brand and reputation are extremely strong in global scale," says Tchernych.
