ECTA 2019: A welcome to the annual conference
The latest IP news and the impact of trademark reform will be at the centre of discussion today at the 38th Annual European Communities Trade Mark Association ( ECTA) Conference.
With more than 800 attendees, ECTA’s 2019 conference, named “New horizons: through the Highland haze”, kicked off in Edinburgh this morning, June 27, at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre.
Addressing the audience earlier today, ECTA’s president, Sozos-Christos Theodoulou, welcomed attendees from across the globe, noting that this meeting is the largest ECTA annual conference to date.
“I look around and see friendly faces from all around the world, from Latin America, the US, Asia, Africa and even Australia. With your collaboration and support, ECTA continues to excel,” he said.
Eric Ramage, an ECTA council member who also spoke at the welcome session, said the conference would address the uncertainty of Brexit, while also illuminating the day-to-day IP issues faced by lawyers and businesses.
Keith Havelock, who is on the local organising committee and was previously the ECTA secretary general, said that while the “New horizons: through the Highland haze” name “was indeed chosen with a thought to Brexit and the UK leaving the EU”, it was also selected because there are many new IP horizons to explore.
“We will look at the trademark landscape and what the new changes are. These sessions will give us an insight into what might be coming,” Havelock said.
Throughout the event, panels of industry members, lawyers and in-house counsel will discuss the EU’s latest trademark reforms and practices and the challenges they pose, the effect of new copyright legislation, and the impact of the General Data Protection Regulation.
Additionally, this afternoon, a panel will focus on unregistered rights and how to enforce them through the use of blockchain.
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