I spent last week in Boston where I attended, with our managing partner Dang The Duc, the International Trademark Association’s (INTA) annual meeting. It was a fast paced round of networking and meeting, with over 11,000 attendees. A very large conference. Crazy, really.

It started with a long flight from Vietnam to Japan, where a layover brought us to an even longer flight from Tokyo to Boston. I watched several movies and listened to quite a bit of music, read some, and tried to sleep.

In Boston we started the next day, with meetings that took us from Los Angeles practitioners to Indian patent attorneys. I met with several great lawyers who are eager to bring the opportunities of Vietnam and ASEAN to their clients.

I also visited many of the booths that were set up, several hundred, and talked with practitioners from China, India, Lebanon–with delicious baklava–and many other countries. It was a successful tour of the world of IP and several new software options to assist law firms and in-house counsel in providing IP services to their clients and employers.

Perhaps the biggest part of INTA, and the most visible, are the parties. Each night there are receptions, parties, and all sorts of events scheduled by various international law firms in an effort to provide a chance for clients and practitioners to meet and socialize. I attended several of these events, and while I don’t drink anymore, I did have the chance to watch as several others turned red in the face and eventually became intoxicated.

At the end of the week there was a closing reception at the Museum of Science of Boston. This was an interesting event at which I sang karaoke, “Rainbow Connection” from the Muppet Movie, a song many of my colleagues at Indochine Counsel will recognize as a reprise of my favorite karaoke song.

I also met with a fellow classmate from Santa Clara University School of Law where I attended law school over ten years ago. It was the first time I’d seen a classmate in years and we spent several hours catching up and speaking of the past and the future.

All in all it was a great event and provided an opportunity for me and Duc to highlight Indochine Counsel’s IP expertise and their ability to work with law firms throughout the region and the globe.