APAA reschedules Council Meeting and Gold Coast Meeting to 2021
18 May 2020
The 71st and 72nd APAA Council Meeting and the 19th General Assembly in Gold Coast Australia or the APAA Gold Coast Meeting which were originally scheduled from November 13-17, 2020 have been postponed until Oct. 29 – Nov. 1 or 2, 2021.
The announcement was issued by APAA president Hirohito Katsunuma and published in the APAA website on May 17.
“As I pen this letter, there are signs that the pandemic has been brought under control, but there are still many countries that are locked down and, furthermore, there are concerns over future outbreaks in Africa and the southern hemisphere,” said Katsunuma in his announcement.
“While there is a light at the end of the tunnel with regards to Covid-19 and we might be able to hold an APAA Gold Coast Meeting this year, there are still hurdles to overcome such as the economic recovery and international travel issues. Due to these obstacles, we are forced to assume that the number of attendees to the APAA Gold Coast Meeting in November 2020 would be poorly attended. However, simply cancelling the November meeting would obligate us to pay cancellation fees, resulting in significant losses to the APAA,” he continued.
The Executive Committee, Advisory Committee and APAA Australia Group arrived at the decision after exploring different ways to address the problem.
“With this, the ExCom/AdCom decided to propose, to the APAA Council, the postponement of the APAA Gold Coast Meeting. We felt that this was the best way to balance the tradition of our annual meeting, our commitment to providing meetings of substance, and our responsibility to protect the APAA from damages. After hearing our proposal, the APAA Council wisely voted to postpone the APAA Gold Coast Meeting,” the announcement reads.
Details of the APAA Gold Coast 2021 Meeting will be announced later.
For the meantime, Katsunuma provided a peek into APAA’s pipeline prior to these events. This includes training courses on patents and trademarks dubbed APAA Patent Surgery and Trademark Caravan respectively.
Read the whole announcement here https://apaaonline.org/event/postponement-of-the-71st-and-72nd-apaa-council-meeting-and-the-19th-general-assembly-in-gold-coast-australia-to-2021/.
Espie Angelica A. de Leon
