Tony Bourget met with INTA President, Gerhard Bauer, May 15, the opening day of the INTA Conference in San Francisco. Mr. Bauer heads a team of 13 people (12 in Germany and 1 in China) at Daimler AG and Rolls-Royce Group who manage a portfolio of approximately 36,000 trademarks worldwide. In addition to talking about his experience crashing expensive cars, Mr. Bauer talked about the importance of trademarks in today’s marketplace: “[Trademarks] fulfill a role for consumers as well as for the brand owner. If something is going on with a trademark it’s very visible.” Working with trademarks means trying to understand what appeals to consumers, and how they interact with brands.