Where in the world?

Today is Design Day in the United States. The USPTO websitr carries this feature on "Design Day 2011: The World of Designs - Design Practice and the International Marketplace", a one-day conference which is open to all and for which there is no fee.

Class 99 mournfully notes the uses of the words "World" and "International" as apparent synonyms for "American".  There are no non-American speakers listed; nor are there any truly international topics on the programme. The closest the programme gets is "The Role of the Office of Policy and External Affairs in International Industrial Design Management and Hague Legislative Update".

This member of the Class 99 team looks forward to comparing notes with US colleagues on some of the problems they share in their respective jurisdictions, and to discussing all those fun topics like fashion protection -- is Europe over-protecting or the US under-protecting -- for example. Meanwhile, can we reclaim the original meaning of the word "international"?