Upon the prodding of a few colleagues, I am departing - at least for the next day or two - from posting about Seventh Circuit cases. Since Saturday, I have been in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, for the 128th International Trademark Association (INTA) Annual Meeting. The city is surprisingly clean, considering its size, and, thus far, I have found the conference to be well-organized and quite interesting, as to both content and attendees. Besides the United Nations, I can't think of too many places where, within five minutes, one can meet someone from Nigeria, Uruguay, Sweden, Hong Kong, and India.
The event is very well attended (over 7,000 trademark practitioners from around the globe), and I can see the effect it is having on the city of Toronto. The restaurants and hotels are working at maximum capacity, and, according to my cab driver this morning, even the streets are more congested than usual.
Although attendance is high, I have managed, mainly by accident, to reconnect with former USPTO Trademark Examining Attorneys, as well as other attorneys I have not seen in a few years. While standing in the dinner line during yesterday's INTA opening reception, I also had the fortunate occasion to meet John Welch of The TTABlog, who said he recognized me from my photograph (hopefully it was the goatee and not the receding hairline!). I plan to see him and others tomorrow night at the "Meet the Bloggers" event.
Well, it's off to dinner. I'll try to write more tomorrow.
