Everything on the Stand Is a Disclosure: Trade Shows, Exhibitions, and the Rights You Spend by Showing Up
By Casey Scott McKay ·
A trade show is a controlled disclosure event that most companies treat as a marketing exercise. This article explains what showing something publicly actually spends: novelty in most of the world, the grace period at home, and the confidentiality that can never be recovered. It works through the filing sequence that must precede the show, what a booth is as an intellectual property object, the on-site enforcement procedures that exist at major exhibitions and are rarely used, the confidential meetings that happen in the back of the stand, and what a company may lawfully learn from walking the floor. It closes with the calendar that should govern every product launch.
IP and Technology > Trademarks | Article | Published 2 August 2024 - Updated 9 August 2026 | Casey Scott McKay - marksy.us
The event nobody treats as legal
A trade show is where an industry gathers to look at each other's products. For the marketing team it is a lead generation exercise with a budget and a stand design. For the intellectual property function it is a controlled disclosure event with irreversible consequences, and the two departments generally do not speak until afterwards.
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