By James Crayton, Alan Harper

In May this year, James Crayton and Alan Harper attended the 140th Annual INTA Meeting in Seattle, USA. This is an annual conference for IP, trade marks and technology lawyers who attend from all over the world. Whilst in Seattle, James and Alan took a trip to the Amazon Go store and saw first-hand what the future of retail, and the high-street, may look like.

Amazon Go is a new kind of store where there is no checkout required. The store’s tag-line is “Just Walk Out Shopping” and all shoppers need to do is download the Amazon Go app, enter the store through barriers which operate much like a ticket barrier at a rail/tube station, take the products that they want and then simply walk out. There are no queues or checkouts involved. A shopper is allowed to take up to one guest with them.