Playing Around INTA 2026: A Scenario Game for IP Lawyers

We’re in London at the INTA 2026 Annual Meeting, but we’re not doing a standard conference recap. We wanted to show how intellectual property work can be creative, inventive, and even fun, so we built THE INVENTIVE MINDSET GAME, a scenario game, and handed real IP lawyers a stack of tricky client prompts.

Each prompt forces a choice: do you follow the client’s exact instructions, take an inventive counseling path, bring in an AI assist tool, or throw a curveball and plan for the worst-case scenario. From a smart home invention to a viral character and an influencer launching a skincare line, we dig into the practical decisions behind patent strategy, trademark protection, and copyright, including how to think about prior art, claim scope, brand control, and what “commercialization” actually demands.

We also talk about the unglamorous but critical details that can make or break an IP strategy: picking the right trademark classes, avoiding coverage that doesn’t match the business, and sequencing filings when budgets are tight. If you’re a founder, creator, in-house counsel, or just curious about how IP law works in the real world, you’ll leave with clearer mental models and sharper questions to ask before you file anything.

Subscribe for more stories and practical IP insights, share this with a friend building a brand, and leave a review if the game format helped you think differently about IP. What would you choose first: safe, inventive, AI-assisted, or curveball?

Send us Fan Mail

Check out "Protection for the Inventive Mind" – available now on Amazon in print and Kindle formats.

The views and opinions expressed (by the host and guest(s)) in this podcast are strictly their own and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the entities with which they may be affiliated. This podcast should in no way be construed as promoting or criticizing any particular government policy, institutional position, private interest or commercial entity. Any content provided is for informational and educational purposes only.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 12 (00:00):
Hello and welcome back to I ntangiblia I'm your
host, Leticia Caminero, and weare reporting from the INTA 2026
Annual Meeting here in London.
This episode, I wanted to makeit differently.
I wanted to show you howIP Lawyers can be creative, can
be inventive, can be even fun.
So I asked them to play a gamewith me, an scenario game.

(00:23):
They have uh received a card inwhich they see what the client
is asking them to do, and thenthey decide which kind of
approach they would like to do.
They either do exactly what theclient wants, act exactly.
They can also have the optionof doing uh an inventive path of

(00:47):
uh the counseling.
And they can they can alsothink about well, maybe it would
be better if I have assistanceof a technology.
So they have the option also ofchoosing an AI assist tool.
And finally, they also have theoption of uh choosing a
curveball.
So thinking about the worstpossible scenario that can

(01:10):
happen in this uh fake reality.
So let's see what the amazinglawyers in Insta had to say
about uh this uh inventive uhmindset game.

Speaker 3 (01:24):
Um I would try to actually find a solution and not
abide by the client termsbasically.
I would look at how to how touh underpin the the idea, the
technical idea to you know havea more um sound idea of what

(01:46):
it's all about.
Um maybe use AI as well to kindof uh explore different options
and alternatives uh to thistechnical invention, basically.
Um you want to understanddeeply what your what
technically you're gonna beprotecting for a patent
application, and obviously, youknow, you you might be

(02:09):
leveraging AI to broaden up yourideas, to have a better idea on
what's the state of the art,for instance, around uh this
specific smart home patentdevice, but also like kind of
get alternatives into theinitial idea you have to broaden
up you know the scope ofprotection you will get with

(02:31):
your future patents.
And actually AI can do thatpretty well.
Um so I would go for those twothings, yeah.

Speaker 8 (02:45):
It's a mezcla deal of the client, but agregate a part
of the invention, an ayuda thatwe can use in the camera to
register the logo that they haveto work for a federation

(03:07):
international because I don'thave to try to integrate in the
market that have been.

Speaker 7 (03:59):
Okay, yeah, because so I have seen that he has only
been thinking about copyright,and I have seen that he has
already gathered a lot ofrecognition from the audience.
So I would be thinking whatother protection does he need to
protect his brand.
So I would already be thinkingabout how he's gonna protect his

(04:21):
trademark to protect his brand,of course, copywriting, and I
would also be thinking of howbest he's gonna commercialize um
this situation, right?
Having you know got in acharacter that had exploded on
social media already.
So I would really be thinkingabout how best he can harness

(04:41):
you know this particular talent.

Speaker 4 (04:59):
Okay es algo que disfruto mucho hace
particularmente por una razónlos clientes suelen ser novatos
en el área de la protección demarcas.
Entonces, me ha llegado a pasarque algunos clientes registran

(05:21):
sus marcas para su servicioprincipal, pero también para
servicios detelecomunicaciones. ¿Por qué?
Porque van a tener una páginaweb, pero no es un servicio que
vayan a prestar.
Entonces es muy fácil, si notienes la asesoría adecuada,
obtener registros in classesthat no tengo la esencia de tu

(05:47):
negocio.
Totally, totally.
Una marca is como el nombre ofa persona.
Nombre de bautizo, nombreproprio, ando.
La marca would say the numberproperty and the products or

(06:09):
services at the whole se vaapplication.
Una cosa no puede funcionar sinla otra.
Perfect.

Speaker 11 (06:20):
About uh, like my question is about influential
and expansion.
So she's basically a famous andinfluencer, and she wants to
launch uh a Steamcare line undera personal uh line uh name,
sorry.
So I will advise her to that itis profitable because she has

(06:43):
millions of followers and she uhalready has other businesses
with her own name.
So maybe the um the otheractivities, if there are other
person involved in that, it canbe quite tricky and uh also

(07:04):
about like the distinctivenessof a name because I don't know
if it's uh famous what like knowabout um uh famous trademarks,
like it can be difficult.
So that's what I'm gonna say.
I don't think it's quiteinventive.
So yes, thank you for havingme.

Speaker (07:52):
Pero no está claro.
Entonces, ¿qué tenemos quehacer?
En el caso de Argentina,tenemos que denunciar cuándo se
realizó esa información, desdeya que le vamos a recomendar que
lo patente.
Vamos a contratar y vamos atener al mejor técnico que lo

(08:16):
asesore para reivindicarcorrectamente su invención.
Porque lo más importante paraél es que su invención esté
registrada.

Speaker 1 (08:28):
Bueno, acá tenemos que asesorar a un cliente que es
una firma que necesitaprotección en todo su merchant
dancing, digamos.
Y bueno, vamos a tratar dehacer todo lo posible para que
esté cubierto con proteccióncompleta y no tenga
inconvenientes con terceros.
Elijo la morada.
Vamos a asesorar bien alcliente, no vamos a hacer lo que

(08:49):
el cliente quiere, el clientenunca quiere gastar plata,
siempre quiere únicamenteregistrar la marca, pero nuestro
cliente necesita variosprotecciones.
Tenemos derecho de autor pararegistrar el contenido de su
obra, porque es una radio, unprograma de radio.
Then we have la protección desus marcas, porque su marca
tiene un diseño muy novedoso,alguien registra.

(09:12):
And copyright, por supuesto.

Speaker 6 (09:25):
In this specific scenario, I would pick two.

Speaker 5 (09:28):
I would pick inventive path and curveball.
Why?
Because uh this is an indie inthe studio, so they have uh
restrict like restrictive means,but they want to scale
globally, and that can be uhvery costly and not effective
for what they want to do.
So I would advise them to firstdo it nationally and focus on

(09:49):
that and then think aboutscaling later.
I think that might be apotential core.
So we can go another route aswell because if it's a
distinctive character in a game,maybe you can go copyright as
well.

Speaker 6 (10:00):
So that's what I was thinking.

Speaker 10 (10:09):
Inventive path, no corball, no, invented path.
Okay, because I'm gonna workwith the direction of
preventive, and what I did ofthe evidently in a point
specific where they can solutionthe things after exploding a

(10:33):
bomb.
And legitimately for whatinitial actions and how to use
registrations, because I'm veryconscient of that empreended

(10:58):
have a economic for realactions.

Speaker 2 (11:18):
Okay, perfect.
So that means that you will goa bit beyond what uh the client
is asignanos.

Speaker 9 (11:35):
Ah, cómo la curva, a ver por qué escojo la fatalidad
porque en este caso inespecífico, debido a que tuvo un
proceso que fue como mess up unpoco desordenado.

Speaker 12 (12:01):
Thank you for playing.
Gracias por jugar.
Thank you for listening to thisflash episode.
If you would like to watch thefull interviews and the full
episode on video, please go totheir YouTube channel
Intangibilia.
See you next time with morestories and more IP.