Day The goal of the ECTA Annual Conferences is twofold: to intensify the exchange of ideas for the benefit of the intellectual property world and to have a good time with colleagues and friends Sozos-Christos Theodoulou
Dear colleagues, members and friends of ECTA
will enable attendees and their guests to enjoy an unforgettable stay in Scotland!
‘New horizons through the Highland haze’ is the motto of this year’s Annual Conference.
With breath taking venues, such as Dynamic Earth or Hopetoun House, Edinburgh offers the ideal setting to grant yourself a well-deserved break and to share fellowship moments with other IP professionals.
The EU itself has been moving through a haze in recent years, not only because of the Brexit imbroglio, but also due to the continuously rising doubt among Europeans with regards to a number of issues—immigration policy, climate change and poor finances are just the hazy headlines in front of all that is hiding behind. No matter the circumstances, ECTA remains optimistic, continues to excel in its fields of competence and lives up to the strict expectations of its partners. Corresponding to these objectives, our 38th Annual Conference—in the stately charm and elegance of Scotland’s capital city—aims to provide participants with the opportunity to take part in an informed debate on many contemporary topics of interest: constructing evidence from the internet, the new EU trade mark legislation in practice, the Brexit situation, strategies for enforcing unregistered rights, sports law, digital content availability, and geographical indications, among many others.
On Friday night, we invite you on a journey of discovery through the history of Scotland to dine in the magnificent main gallery of the National Museum of Scotland, while the Saturday excursions will take you to the seaside town of St. Andrews, to Scotland’s first design museum in Dundee, and the famous Glenturret Distillery. The goal of the ECTA Annual Conferences is twofold: to intensify the exchange of ideas for the benefit of the intellectual property world and to have a good time with colleagues and friends. We very much hope to achieve both in these few days we spend together in Edinburgh. I personally retain wonderful memories from last year’s gathering in Athens and look forward to creating more of those in the ‘Athens of the North’. Welcome to Scotland! Welcome to Auld Reekie!
The interview with the new EUIPO Executive Director, Christian Archambeau, the update on ICANN/WHOIS, and our wellestablished case-law roundup will be equally informative and inspiring. Because hard work deserves a reward, one must not lose sight that the Local Organising Committee, Eric Ramage, Maggie Ramage and Keith Havelock, have put together a truly compelling social programme, which
Sozos-Christos Theodoulou ECTA President
Social Change
The ‘B’ Word
Your COMMITEEment
Attendee Views
AI is incresingly shaping itself as
Fabio Angelini on the
Anna Ostanina gets stuck in
Hear from regular and
a generator of social change
UK’s uncertain future
with ECTA’s many Committees
first time attendees
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Attendee insights
Hashtag phrases as trademarks surge in the UK The number of hashtag phrases registered as trademarks in the UK has grown considerably, according to research from law firm Withers & Rogers. The firm found that the UK Intellectual Property Office (UKIPO) granted 91 trademarks for words or phrases containing a hashtag in 2018, a 26 percent increase from 2017. Some 37 applications are currently pending. These hashtags include brand names or feature short words that are the centre of a specific advertising campaign. Examples include Iceland’s #toocoolforplastic, Coral’s #yourcall, and Boohoo.com’s #allgirls, which were all granted registration in the UK in 2018. The firm stated that these phrases are “an essential part of any integrated communications campaign” due to their ability to increase a brands visibility, which may be behind the surge in filings. Tania Clark, president of the Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (CITMA), commented: “The fact that some household names have succeeded in securing registrations from the UKIPO for marks containing hashtags may be encouraging other brand owners to act similarly.” “If successful, they could secure an exclusive right to use these marks in category-specific marketing and communications content. However, brand owners should be aware that including a hashtag alongside a word or phrase will not make the path to protection any easier. The UKIPO has confirmed that the inclusion of a hashtag symbol has no bearing whatsoever on whether a trademark registration is granted or not, as the symbol itself is not regarded as distinctive. Nevertheless, if brand owners can provide evidence that a descriptive or non-distinctive hashtag phrase has acquired distinctiveness through use, then it is likely to be granted.” Clark concluded: “Growing use of social media, combined with the fact that Google now includes hashtag phrases in its search results, means brand owners are increasingly keen to protect them. By doing so, they can prevent rivals from using them.” Brands have secured registrations for hashtag phrases in the US, however, in order to achieve such a mark, a phrase must be an ‘identifier of the source of the applicant’s goods or services’.
You are a regular attendee at the ECTA Annual Conference. What sets ECTA apart from other events? As in-house counsel, I have been active with ECTA for more than 20 years. ‘Efficiency’ and ‘conviviality’ are the words I could use to describe ECTA conferences. It remains at a human size with around 800 attendees from all over the world.
What sessions/programmes/ excursions would you recommend for a first-time attendee? For a first-time attendee, I would recommend attending all the sessions as this is the best way to learn about the most recent intellectual property developments. The speakers are highly professional, from private practice, industry or academia. The social events are a great opportunity for networking. I like the fact that all participants take part in them as no other social events are allowed by the ECTA policy during the conference. Even the Saturday excursion is a good way to continue networking. After this first conference, I suggest participating in one of the ECTA Committees. This will allow you to make a contribution to the new IP legislation, promote and improve our IP world. Sylvie Harding Senior Counsel, trademark and anti-counterfeit department Chanel, France
This is your first time attending the ECTA Annual Conference, what are your expectations? For the busy IP practitioner, it’s always a hard choice to select the most convenient conferences. The productiveness of the time spent and the usefulness of received knowledge are the two most influential factors determining the choice of event.
Why choose ECTA? I believe that the European focus of ECTA offers particularly useful networking and communication opportunities, as well as provides the most relevant knowledge for European IP practitioners. In addition to attracting a rising number of participants from around the world, ECTA preserves its competitive advantages as a European IP event. Looking at the list of participants, I expect a friendly working atmosphere and interesting lectures. Yaroslav Ognevyuk Partner, head of IP Sayenko Kharenko, Ukraine
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Adidas trademark rejected as ‘invalid’ The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has ruled an Adidas trademark to be invalid following the brand’s dispute with the European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO).
Chamber, Extended Composition), comprised of Stéphane Gervasoni, Lauri Madise, Ricardo da Silva Passos, Krystyna KowalikBańczyk and Colm Mac Eochaidh.
The second claim made by Adidas was that the Board of Appeal misapplied the “law of permissible variations” when considering the case.
Adidas argued that the trademark was only claimed in specific dimensions and widthheight ratios, and was therefore misinterpreted by the Board of Appeal. It further contended that such specifics meant the trademark in question constituted a pattern mark, despite being registered as a figurative mark. While the CJEU acknowledged The validity of the trademark was called into that a figurative mark can be defined as “a question by Shoe Branding Europe, which series of regularly repetitive elements”, it filed an appeal with the EUIPO for a dec- rejected Adidas’ argument of misinterprelaration of invalidity on the basis that the tation on the grounds that article 7(1)(b) of mark lacked “any distinctive character, both Council Regulation no. 207/2009 prohibits inherent and acquired through use”. The dis- the registration of trademarks that lack any pute was heard by the General Court (Ninth distinctive character.
This was disputed by the EUIPO and Shoe Branding, who argued that a rightsholder can only use a trademark in identical form as to how it was registered.
Adidas originally filed an application for registration of an EU trademark with the EUIPO back in December 2013, consisting of “three parallel equidistant stripes of identical width”, which was granted under the registration number 12442166.
The court considered the simplistic nature of the trademark, inversion of the colour scheme and promotional images cited as evidence by Adidas showing sloping stripes, before rejecting this second claim in its entirety. The court concluded by dismissing the action and ordering Adidas to pay the costs incurred by the EUIPO and Shoe Branding.
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Artificial intelligence as a generator of social change Mladen Vukmir discusses how AI can generate social change and how the legal profession must adapt and overcome to ensure its continued survival Artificial intelligence (AI) is upon us. Many view the emergence of AI as a unique and unforeseeable threat. But if we try to step back, we can actually distinguish at least two reasons why AI is perceived as a threat. The first and most widespread one is primarily stemming out of the general human difficulty to embrace the new and the unknown, especially if this is novel at such magnitude. This is certainly compounded by the intuitive fear that this particular new technology is bringing with it a very deep change that can, potentially, eliminate many jobs or even the entire professions. In the case of lawyers, this threat is rather , as the profession has uninterruptedly been developing for centuries with ever growing number of professionals together with their reputation and standing in the societies which they served. These fears are not unfounded, and the lawyers as an educated part of the population quickly and properly grasped the full potential of the emerging technology which does, indeed, bring to potential of automatising large segments of the traditional legal work. The survival instinct of the entire profession kicked in and the lawyers turned their sights the other way from the imminent developments for a couple of decades. The second ground for perceiving the emergence of AI as a threat is much more elaborate in the sense that it stems out of the understanding of the inherent traits of AI. Examples of such threats might be the issues of ‘explainability’ and ‘unlearnability’. Many informed legal professionals will have already appreciated one problem in human interfacing with AI. Namely, there is an important barrier that arises when the AI delivers its decision based on the automatically gathered intake used of the machine learning process, and this comes without a humanly intelligible reasoning behind it. Of course, in the administrative and judicial contexts, this means that such a decision cannot be properly examined for the purposes of appeal. This is called the ‘explainability’ issue. This is compounded by the apparent fact that, even if an explanation is provided, the humans which are tasked with eventually controlling the outcome, increasingly tend to follow the AI decisions without further questioning them. 6
The other, namely the ‘unlearnability’ issue, arises when the automatically gathered intake is programmed to remain unchanged regardless of the moral and ethical considerations that it represents in interacting with humans. Problems which were reported include those that arose when some chatbots were programmed in such a way and in a short time started making offensive racist remarks because that is what they have learned automatically online. The fact that many vocal individuals and other bots express such objectionable views online resulted with the particular AI powered chatbot becoming racist in spite of the general moral attitude where the humans try to rise above such traits. Therefore, it became necessary to shut down this particular chatbot over some 48 hours of its functioning, as it was not possible to reprogramme it so to unlearn the racism it has developed.
remnants in the very visible role in constitutional monarchies where the royal sovereigns play an important role. Not least, in many countries, republics and monarchies, there are a number of associations composed of individuals who are heirs to the formerly noble families and who keep alive the memory of the feudal social structure. It is possible to imagine legal system morphing and shifting into its future role in a similar manner.
Former president of the High Commercial Court of Croatia, the late Justice Blažević, remarked once publicly that, while we were rightly proud of introducing the rule of law, we don’t have an automatic right to remain proud of this achievement unless we help our societies to move beyond it. What he wanted to emphasise is that, after two centuries, the time has come for the societies to embark on a search of a better tool for social organisation than the legal system that served us so The role of the rule of law has been raising well thus far. Our societies have been trying in importance for centuries to take the posi- to make this point towards legal system over tion of the very central axis of social organi- the last couple of decades ever more forcesation. Feudalism was replaced by the rule of fully. The first signs of avoiding the usage of law and the civil democratic societies as the legal system as a main tool for dispute resforces of social reorganisation unleashed by olution appeared as soon as interest based the industrial revolution and were aided by dispute resolution methods were developed the way we have started using law to regu- and deployed. late the individual rights in itself. There can be very little doubt that law and the legal sys- While it is clear that law will not disappear in tem, followed by the raising role of the intan- the future societies, it is becoming increasinggible assets protected by law, have brought ly certain that its role will shift and its form unprecedented levels of development to a will morph. In accordance with the so called number of societies on the planet. It could be “principle of layering” in technological develeven asserted that this potent combination opment. To the people who have noticed of judicial and legal systems, in conjunction that human innovations tend to survive in with intellectual property in particular, have layers it is clear that all—print, radio, televibrought the highest rates of development in sion—survived the onset of each new techthe entire human history. Law did serve us a nology, and they have all continued to thrive potent booster for development like no other after the emergence of internet, albeit with social institution in human history. different roles and functions. Here it is possible to make the analogy with the developFeudalism might have been ultimately re- ments in the social realm where we can also placed by civil society and the rule of law as observe that the forms of human invention the central axis of organisation of modern tend to stick around over the centuries withsocieties. While it may have lost its dominant out disappearing, unfortunately including role, it did not disappear. While we were slavery that also morphed and shifted to the proudly and rightfully touting this achieve- social margins. ment as a progress of the human race, feudalism morphed, shifted and transformed The emergence of AI, therefore, does not itself into a different quality, and has persis- mean an end of the rule of law. Moving tently remained a part of the social organisa- beyond the rule of law requires its strong tion. It is impossible to overlook its morphed functioning in the background. It does, likely
signify a radical shift in the role of the rule of law. The first shifts and morphs in this process are becoming obvious, not only to the well informed practitioners of law whom might not have a clear picture due to their vested interests, but in the first place to the society at large. In order to predict what is coming it was over the last couple of decades, therefore, more useful to listen to the voices of the society at large rather than the legal professionals. Many of these impulses were noted by Oxford professor Richard Susskind in his seminal book The End of Lawyers. If we try to read the future, we could probably first spot a chance for the AI as a potential savior of the legal system.
a real value in, what would otherwise be a cumbersome, complex and expensive system that otherwise produce relatively little value for the everyday challenges.
The emergence of AI therefore, does not mean an end of the rule of law. Moving beyond the rule of law requires its strong functioning in the background
As its inconsistencies increase under the ever growing complexity, the legal systems are ever worse suited to serve as a kind of guidance to their societies that they held as one of their most important traditional roles.
The question remains whether the legal system, if salvageable as described above, will still be the central tool of choice for the social integration. Our observation of the processes already in place indicate that this might not Bringing consistency to the complex legal sys- be enough. This does point to another potentems in the conditions of ever more populous, tial role for the lawyers of the future. complex and diverging societies is a task legal systems were not designed to serve on such I feel that law might cease to be a predoma massive scale. inantly skills based profession, which it was for centuries. Just doubling of the population on the planet would have seriously endangered the cohe- In a way, it might be argued that so many sion of legal systems, but the growing social highly educated individuals providing speciffreedoms and the multiplication of the num- ically limited contribution to their societies is ber of interactions enabled by the depend- a bad use of social resources. ence on the internet sealed the fate of the traditional role for the legal systems for good. Societies seem to have concluded this some Therefore, the deployment of high capacity AI time ago, when the Nobel prize for contributools might decrease the pressure on the le- tion to society did not include lawyers as its gal system operated by humans and increase potential recipients. No contribution, no prize, any possible value it holds for the societies. to put it simply. I would submit that, possibly, the most important role of the AI might be in the legislative field where machines might, in a superior way, become more able than humans to assure the integrity and consistency of the codified rules we are using to regulate our societies. Accordingly, rather than seeing the onset of the AI as a threat, lawyers should become more involved in shaping its future forms and uses.
However, I feel that by addressing this threat, it is becoming clear that the morphing of the legal profession into a creative profession rather than skill based profession will be needed for its survival. It looks likely that, in order to bridge the huge gap we have developed between our actual position in relation to the place that we need to be today and in order to adequately address the needs of contemporary and future societies, the legal profession needs de employ traits such as imagination and creativity. This means that innovation in the legal profession cannot remain limited to the introduction of the new products and services or the invention of new marketing methods in the societies where they are permitted. In societies that have realised that innovation is a condition of survival, these kind of efforts of the legal profession do not amount to a sufficient guarantee for its justification and its survival. By utilising design thinking and imagination, the lawyers of today and tomorrow will aim to shape the solutions we need to reshape the status at hand and realign the social forces for greater efficiency. In that sense, as lawyers, we need to pay more attention to the technological and social development and must not shy away from innovating profusely and abundantly the solutions our societies need to realign with their needs. For this to be achieved, we need not only understanding of new technologies, but also gain different legal education and ambition to contribute to our society in innovative ways. If AI will push us in this direction, it might, indeed prove to be the savior of our profession.
To an active listener, many centuries old jokes about the lawyers are a telling sign of the true social perception of their profession. If so, what could then a lawyer of the future be doing to change the perception and make a meaningful contribution? I would argue that the answer lies in abandoning the skills as the core foundation of the legal profession. If we accept the role of the properly structured AI as a replacement for the basic legal skills, what does remain?
The involvement of the lawyers in harnessing the power of human moral and ethical capacities will become a condition for the survival It is true that this means loss of traditional of the legal system to be operated sufficiently jobs for many legal assistants, trainees and efficiently for the society at large to perceive associates, as well as for many attorneys.
Mladen Vukmir Second Vice-President ECTA
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How COMMITTEEd are you? Anna Ostanina, Manager of Legal Affairs at ECTA, explains why getting involved with ECTA’s Committees is an important aspect of membership ◄◄ REWIND ECTA was formed in 1980. Back then, the idea was to bring together all practising professionals, including trade mark agents, trade mark attorneys, lawyers, industry representatives and all those practising in this area of law within the member states of the European Community. The structure of ECTA was envisaged as a main governing body—the Council—assisted by a number of dedicated Committees. By 1985, apart from the officers of the association forming the Management Committee and the Advisory Committee (which was then called the ‘Programme Committee’), ECTA had two legal affairs Committees (the Law Committee and Professional Affairs Committee (PAC)) and two administrative affairs Committees (Membership Committee and Publications Committee).
activities and areas of expertise, and became known internationally.
Diversifying its activities and paying attention to other areas of intellectual property law, in addition to trade marks, required creation of Some of these Committees have by now further dedicated teams to support the rele- changed their name—for example, the OHIM vant work of the association. Link Sub-Committee which is now the EU IP Office (EUIPO)-Link Committee—and many have adapted their mission and focus to the current realities, legislative developments and changes of practice.
The structure of ECTA was envisaged as a main governing body—the Council— assisted by a number of dedicated Committees
Back then, with several hundred ECTA members in total, only a few were members of the New legal affairs Committees were then above Committees. created: the Anti-Counterfeiting Committee (1988), Industrial Designs and Utility Models Gradually, the association continued Committee (1992-1993), OHIM-Link Subgrowing in the number of members, Committee (1996), Harmonization Committee 8
(1999-2000), Internet Committee (2001-2002), Geographical Indications Committee (20102011), Copyright Committee (2015), and WIPO-Link Committee (2015).
However, one thing remained true for all: Committees continue to be the heart of ECTA and the core of ECTA’s activities. Committees are where the debates take place, the opinions are formed, the position papers are drafted. Committees give voice and weight to ECTA and are essential to the association as well as key to its success. ►► FAST FORWARD Nowadays, in addition to the Management Committee and Advisory Committee which are part of the governance of the association, ECTA has more than 1,500 members, about
20 percent of which are engaged in one of the existing twelve ECTA Committees: eight legal affairs Committees (ACC, Copyright, Design, Geographical Indicators, Harmonisation, Internet, Law, PAC), two administrative affairs committees (Membership & Disciplinary and Publications Committees) and two link committees (EUIPO-Link and WIPO-Link). Committee members have the privilege of attending two in-person Committee meetings each year, during the Annual Conference, Autumn Council Meeting and Committee Meetings.
Members in the EUIPO-Link and WIPOLink Committees are appointed from other legal affairs Committees and function also as a liaison between their primary Committee (for example, design, internet or law) and the relevant Link Committee.
Another special type of Committee are the so-called Link Committees, which are the drivers of ECTA cooperation and communication with EUIPO and WIPO. 10
They will be happy to tell you more about the recent Committee projects, activities and achievements.
Of course, ECTA will not stop here. Further Committees, sub-committees and dedi- Below is the schedule of when relevant cated groups will be created, whenever the Committee leaders will be present at the need arises. ECTA Booth:
The thirteenth Committee that is currently being recreated is the Programme During the meetings members brainstorm Committee, which will be taking care of the on the current legal issues, finalise projects, development of the working programmes and kick-start the new ones. of various ECTA events (workshops, round tables and the Annual Conference) around The work continues by email and online the year. in between the two in-person meetings throughout the year. Each committee is managed by a team of Committee leaders, including a Chair, ViceBeing a Committee member not only allows Chair and Secretary. you to keep up to date with the legal developments in a selected area of IP law (be it Committee members are expected to be the latest case law on designs, new types active in a committee and contribute to at of trade marks, hot internet topics or other least two projects a year and, of course, subjects) and meeting like-minded experts attend the in-person Committee meetings. in the field, but also to influence these developments by providing your input dur- Are you already a Committee member?— ing ongoing public and targeted expert and Then, you know how this works! stakeholder consultations, contributing in drafting ECTA position papers and state- Not yet COMMITTEEd?—Please keep reading. ments, preparing and attending bilateral and multilateral meetings with authorities such ► PLAY as the EUIPO, WIPO, European Commission, National Trade Mark Offices and other ECTA members may join a Committee for a official bodies. period of two years (and can re-apply to the same Committee twice more). Therefore, it The two administrative affairs Committees, is possible to be on the same committee for which are also among the oldest ECTA up to six years in a row. Every two years the Committees, are of particular importance general Committee elections (re-elections) to ECTA. take place. They take care, among other things, of educating and informing members about the important IP news and developments through the ECTA Bulletin and various other publications (Publications Committee), as well as take charge of approving new members, developing membership benefits and assessing ECTA’s performance from the members’ perspective and providing guidance for constant improvement (Membership and Disciplinary Committee).
If you would like to learn more about various ECTA Committees, please come to the ECTA Booth during the coffee breaks to meet with the Committee leaders.
Committees at the ECTA Booth Design Committee Publications Committee Professional Affairs Committee Internet Committee GI Committee/Membership & Disciplinary Committee Harmonization Committee Law Committee Anti-Counterfeiting Committee Copyright Committee
Wednesday, 26 June 15.30 – 16.00
Thursday, 27 June 11.10 – 11.40
Thursday, 27 June 15.30 – 15.45
Friday, 28 June 10.45 – 11.15
Friday, 28 June 15.15 – 15.45
Whether your background is in private practice, in-house or academia, and whatever jurisdiction you are practicing in, ECTA Committees have opened their doors for you. Do not miss this opportunity to become more involved with your association and start ECTing now! We hope to see you during the next Committee meetings in October 2019 in Cyprus!
ECTA has just held the General Committee elections in May 2019 for the new period of two years (July 2019 to July 2021). Did you miss this? Do not worry. We have extended the possibility for ECTA members to apply for one of the legal or administrative affairs Committees during the Edinburgh Annual Conference until the end of the day on Friday 28 June 2019. If you wish to submit your application to any of the mentioned, please fill in the application form available at the registration desk and at the ECTA Booth in the exhibition area located at the Cromdale Hall (EICC).
Coffee Break
Anna Ostanina Manager, Legal Affairs, BE ECTA
The country which cried ‘Brexit’ Fabio Angelini looks into the current state of the IP sphere as Brexit draws closer, then runs further away In its current state, how problematic could Brexit be for those who enforce, promote or protect intellectual property? Honestly, while the fact that the UK could no longer be a member of the EU certainly will create problems, the greatest difficulty has arisen because in the past six months, no one could or can really say what ‘current state’ means. In my opinion, this is what has rendered the Brexit process so incredibly confusing and uncertain, and the confusion and uncertainty apply across the board, not only to intellectual property related matters. While all IP professionals awaited 29 March, the date once considered to be the ‘final’ date, as the day after which, for better or worse, some clarity would finally set in, so as to define which strategies to follow, the latest developments (the postponement to 31 October, resignation of UK Prime Minister Theresa May, uncertainty as to whom will replace her and what the UK Parliament will ultimately decide) have instead extended the uncertainty. EU and non-EU Companies might or might not like Brexit, but whatever their feelings are, ultimately what they want is stability and predictability so as to be able to adjust their business models to different circumstances. This is not happening, and in my view this is even worse and more problematic than Brexit itself. How important is it for European trade mark professionals that the UK obtain a deal with the EU? The answer to this question in my view depends in the first place on whom we define as ‘European’ trade mark professionals. On the one hand, in fact, it’s difficult to deny that if UK-based trade mark professionals will no longer be allowed to represent clients before the EU IP Office (EUIPO), this circumstance will surely cause a loss of this kind of work (and its revenues) and a shift toward EU-based professionals. On the other hand, it is also true that since the UK, its market and its economy is still one of the largest in the world, companies will still want and need protection of their IP rights there. 12
Therefore, UK-based firms will be able to at least offset such losses.
To lose the UK and its IP professionals (judges included) would mean a great loss of invaluable resources, competence and diverse perThat said, of course having a deal is impor- spectives, as it will be for the UK when it will tant because an orderly and gradual tran- no longer be exposed to the views and the sition toward a separation between the EU ideas of EU IP professionals. market and the UK market would allow companies to better adjust their strategies and/ As far as I am aware, the greater majority of or manage pending matters, and by doing so IP professionals I know and I have discussed reduce costs and minimise inconveniences this issue with, seem to share my opinion, and/or loss of rights. and hopefully the ideal for the UK will be to reconsider and remain with the EU. The steps already taken by the UK with its legislative acts are very encouraging because, How do you see harmonisation between the even in a no deal scenario, most existing UK and EU changing post-Brexit? rights would be preserved, although for some areas (most notably copyright matters) Not at all, actually quite the contrary. In my more still would be necessary. view harmonisation will not just be an option, but a necessity. Even though the UK may no longer be part of the EU, the UK will not, and will never be, a distant or remote or foreign country.
The steps already taken by the UK with its legislative acts are very encouraging because, even in a no deal scenario, most existing rights would be preserved
What is the ideal exit for Britain that those in the IP world are hoping for?
The UK will always have still extremely close relations with the EU market and with the EU IP rights. EU IP laws will still be on the book and UK Courts will still defer to the same existing EU case law developed so far, (until of course reversed by UK Courts). I hope that EU and UK institutions (first and foremost the EUIPO and the UK IP Office) will consider it a priority to build, maintain and enhance strict relations to continue to develop as much as possible comparable standards and practice.
I cannot presume to speak for all, so I will speak for myself: while I of course respect the will expressed in 2016 by the majority of the then UK voters, I still hope that the UK will not ultimately leave the EU. The UK is a country which has shared, for more than 30 years, EU laws, principles and values. It cannot fade away so easily. One only needs to consider how many extremely important issues in the interpretation of EU trade marks and design laws were raised by UK Courts to have a prima facie and incontrovertible evidence of the role played by the UK in shaping EU trade mark and design laws and practice.
Fabio Angelini Council Member and Vice-Chair of the Copyright Committee ECTA
COUNTRY HEADING
2019 GLOBAL IP DIRECTORY
Agenda
08.00-20.00
Registration and Information Desk Strathblane Hall, EICC
08.00-14.30
Committee Meetings (by invitation only) - Sheraton Grand Hotel & Spa
08.00-09.00
Advisory Committee - Eilean Donan
08.30-12.00
Anti-Counterfeiting Committee - Edinburgh Suite 2, Sheraton Copyright Committee - Stirling, Sheraton Design Committee - Culzean, Sheraton Geographical Indications Committee - Dunvegan, Sheraton Harmonization Committee - Edinburgh Suite 1, Sheraton Internet Committee - Glamis, Sheraton Law Committee - Melville Suite, Sheraton Professional Affairs Committee - Braemer, Sheraton
12.00-14.30
EUIPO-Link Committee lunch meeting - Eilean Donan Membership and Disciplinary Committee lunch meeting - Glamis Programme Committee lunch meeting - Atrium Area (reserved table) Publications Committee lunch meeting - Braemer WIPO-Link Committee lunch meeting - Culzean
12.00-14.00
Lunch for Council and Committee Members (by invitation only)
14.30-18.30
Council Meeting (by invitation only) - Edinburgh Suite 2
14.30-17.00
Workshop: Constructing evidence based on disclosureon the Internet Sidlaw Auditorium, Edinburgh International Conference Centre (EICC) Moderator: Luis-Alfonso Durán, ECTA Past President, Durán-Corretjer, S.L.P., ES EU view, Sergio Rizzo, Member of the ECTA Design and EUIPO-Link Committees & representing ECTA in CP10, Daudén, ES US view, Robert W. Sacoff, Pattishall, McAuliffe, Newbury, Hilliard & Geraldson LLP, US JP view, Nami Togawa, Trade Mark Attorney, Manager of Trade Mark Department, Seiwa Patent & Law, JP The Hon Lady Wolffe, Commercial Judge, Court of Session, UK Myrtha Hurtado Rivas, Chair, ECTA WIPO-Link Committee, Novartis, CH
15.30-16.00
Coffee break
17.00-18.00
WIPO/EUIPO Workshop: New IT tools and useful statistics Sidlaw Auditorium, EICC Moderator: Luis-Alfonso Durán, ECTA Past President, Durán-Corretjer, S.L.P., ES Update on the latest development of the Madrid System, Debbie Roenning, Director of Madrid Legal Division, WIPO, CH Ignacio De Medrano, Head of Service of the International Cooperation Area, EUIPO, ES
20.00-23.00
Welcome Cocktail Reception at Dynamic Earth Dynamic Earth is a visitor attraction and a conference and event venue by day, while at night it transforms into a unique and exciting evening venue. The striking building with its magnificent translucent roof and glass walls is set against the dramatic backdrop of Salisbury Crags on the edge of Holyrood Park. Dress code: Smart Casual Bus transfers will be provided from EICC.
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