ASR Bikinis

Just returned home after several days at the Action Sports Retail (or ASR) Show in San Diego. Our intellectual property seminar, entitled "Protecting Your Intellectual Property in Good Times and Bad Times" went well, but was about as lightly attended as the overall show. In years past, the aisles have been, quite literally, elbow-to-elbow. However, the trend since the winter show in 2008 (February to be more precise) has been for much fewer exhibitors and attendees. This year there was no Agenda Show (ASR's funkier cross-town rival) as it had moved to Huntington Beach in July (to coincide with the U.S. Surf Open) and the weak economy contributed to further weaken the show.

If we made one mistake, it was scheduling our seminar on Thursday afternoon. Based on conversations with exhibitors large and small, most arrived early Thursday with plans already made to get away Thursday afternoon and return home by Friday evening even though the show runs through early Saturday afternoon. Through 2008, the show ran through Sunday, but everyone, especially owners, were long gone by Sunday morning.

Overall, we had a nice crowd, many of whom were fairly knowledgeable about trademarks and copyrights, and the crowd interaction made for an enjoyable time. Of course, the real pleasure was walking the main floor and checking out the scantily clad bikini models. Unfortunately, my observations on that topic are best reserved for a completely different blog.

Look for us again at the ASR Show in February (and watch for our Webinars between now and then, especially the "hot topics in airsoft" Webinar coming up soon).

David Baker
The Airsoft Lawyer