Catch 2020

Walking a tightrope

As we wait for the fog of the pandemic to lift, it is time to roll up the sleeves and get back to making things work. Economists often talk of second-order effects – the idea that every action has consequences, and each of those consequences has subsequent consequences. Second-order effects are often a blind spot for decisionmakers and policy wonks.

2020 has been a year of second-order effects running wild – governments, people and businesses have all been left dealing with the fallout from other fallouts. There are no status quos, no business-as-usual days, and staying on top of the game this year is all about making tough decisions.

In our cover story, To be or not to be, we profile a business leader who has had to make lemonade when given nothing but lemons this year. The Confucian ideal of turning crisis into opportunity is not as easy as it sounds, but some make it look easy, and Etienne Sanz de Acedo, CEO of the International Trademark Association (INTA), is one such person.

If you are an intellectual property (IP) attorney worth your salt, or associated with the IP legal and wider business community, and have not attended an INTA Annual Meeting – well, perhaps you should have. The diverse locations each year attract thousands of registrants in a who’s who of the IP community – thought leaders, policymakers, academics, in-house counsel, hundreds of firms, top-gun practitioners and up-and-coming associates all gather for a week of intellectual stimulation woven in with relaxed networking.