EUIPO celebrates ‘special moment’ in Alicante
Executive director João Negrão kicks off annual case law conference | 1,400 participants celebrate 30-year milestone for the office | EUIPO has grown from 10 staff to more than 1,300 | Top EU judge shares views on technology laws.
The IP ecosystem is robust and works for everyone, but there is still work to be done—especially to include underrepresented groups who currently do not have access to IP.
That was the message from João Negrão, executive director of the EU Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO), who kicked off the office’s 5th Edition IP Case Law Conference 2024.
The conference, held on April 29 and 30 and entitled Decoding Decisions: Insights from Selected Case-Law, marks the trademark and design office’s 30-year anniversary.
Master of Ceremony Thomas Frydendahl—litigator at the EUIPO Board of Appeal Litigation Service, and member of the Norwegian Board of Appeal (KFIR)—said the event was “an important milestone”.
“Not only is it the 30-year anniversary of the EUIPO, but it is also the fifth time the EUIPO Courts of Appeals have held an IP case law conference,” he said.
“Since the first IP case law conference in 2016, it has become the flagship event in the board's pursuit of transparency, engagement, and enlightenment.”
He went on to say that there are more than 1,400 participants from more than 66 different countries attending the conference.
EUIPO’s growth ‘remarkable’
In his opening statement, Negrão—who has been in post since September 2023 and was interviewed by WIPR in March this year—hailed a “special moment”, celebrating 30 years but also looking to the future.
He congratulated the EUIPO’s “remarkable” growth to become one of the biggest EU agencies, with 10 staff at its inception to 1,300 staff today.
Despite this progress, though, the consensus of a public consultation was that the office should do more to benefit the IP ecosystem.
“We all know that IP is not an end in itself. IP is a connector between ideas and the market.
“In that regard, the EUIPO can and should also do more to make sure that the IP ecosystem continues to deliver for innovators in Europe and around the world.”
Negrão added that there remain areas that need work to “ensure that the IP ecosystem is robust and works for everybody”.
He highlighted three groups that are still excluded from participating or benefiting from the IP ecosystem.
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is one such group, of which only 10% are protected in Europe through IP rights, he said.
The second group is the younger generation, whom Negrao said are “still sceptical about IP rights”.
And the third group he mentioned were women in innovation, who represent just 24% of designers in all applications received by the office.
This figure is lower for patents, with women representing just 13% of all inventors named on patent applications.
“We are losing a huge potential in terms of innovation capacity in Europe,” he said, adding that there are many more challenges besides, such as digital infringement and generative AI.
EU General Court judge: Draft tech legislation carefully
Savvas Papasavvas, vice-president of the General Court of the European Union closed the opening statements.
He joked that while this is his fourth IP case law conference that he has attended, it’s the first time that the weather has been “that bad” in Alicante, which was surprisingly overcast and rainy.
Joking aside, he commented on how “30 years are both very short and very long when it comes to laws”.
“A number of core principles in our various national legal systems or the general principles of European Union law are indeed older than 30 years, and have not or have barely changed.
“In other areas of law, 30 years is a lifetime. Any legislation or regulation pertaining to or based on a specific technology is quite likely to be out of date after three decades.”
This, he said, is one of the main reasons why “ideally, law should be drafted in a manner that can fit any technology, even future ones. Only then can we avoid or at least limit any legal or regulatory voice.”
The other two speakers delivering opening statements were Jorma Hanski, chairperson of the Management Board of the EUIPO and director, patents and trademarks at the Finnish Patent and Registration Office; and José Antonio Gil Celedonio, chairperson of the Budget Committee of the EUIPO and IP attaché at the Spanish Permanent Representation of the EU.
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