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20 March 2023FeaturesTrademarksBaron Armah-Kwantreng

Strategies for success: CITMA Spring Conference 2023

On March, 16, trademark lawyers from around the world gathered at the Chartered Institute of Trade Mark Attorneys (CITMA) Spring Conference at the historic Waldorf Hilton in London.

The event began with a champagne reception in the hotel’s palatial Palm Court, as attorneys took in the splendour, greeted old acquaintances and checked the conference programme, ready to explore the theme: “Strategies for Success”.

Made by bakers, approved by lawyers

CITMA president and Baker McKenzie lawyer Rachel Wilkinson-Duffy introduced the keynote speaker Amanda Michaels, barrister, deputy judge of Intellectual Property Enterprise Court and Appointed Person.

Michaels apologised for appearing on a big screen and being unable to greet old friends and new due to a bout of COVID-19.

Her keynote summarised some of the key themes in the programme beginning with a trademark favourite—the battle over Marks & Spencers’ (M&S) Colin the Caterpillar cake and its many imitations such as Aldi’s Cuthbert the Caterpillar version.

She referenced Aldi’s PR campaign after the dispute was resolved, promoting Cuthbert the Caterpillar as “made by bakers and approved by lawyers”. She then posed the question: “Is it legitimate to register a mark that is only partly connected with part of the mark?” Such as the shape of a bottle for Coca-Cola, or the colour purple for chocolate by Cadbury.

Michaels noted the difficulty of securing a mark when relying on get-up (the ‘look and feel’ of a product), adding that such disputes tend to settle. Moving to other IP rights, the association’s president discussed the challenges of securing design rights in disputes such as M&S vs Aldi and the challenge of which part of a design right to protect in which key territories.

In house: Brand protection and clearance

This was a natural segway to the opening session, an in-house discussion on brand protection and clearance chaired by former CITMA president Richard Goddard, trademark counsel at BP.

The panellists were Victor Foo, general counsel at Joseph Joseph, Priti Kochhar, trademarks, copyright & designs counsel at Philip Morris International and Jack Randles, head of legal at Manolo Blahnik.

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