One of the highlights of every ECTA Annual Conference is the traditional EU Case Law Update session - widely considered one of the most awaited sessions of the programme. This year’s edition will be moderated by Klaudia Błach Morysińska (ECTA Treasurer, Zaborski, Morysiński Law Office, Poland), who will guide attendees through the latest key IP decisions in the EU.Learn more about this session from Klaudia:1. Introduce yourself and your link to ECTA.My name is Klaudia Błach Morysińska and I am ECTA Treasurer. I have been actively involved in ECTA for several years as Supervisory Board member, Chair of the Law Committee and EUIPO-Link Committee Secretary. I highly value ECTA as a unique forum connecting practitioners, judges, in-house counsel and EUIPO representatives from across Europe.2. Introduce the topic of your Conference session.I will moderate the last session: “EU Case Law Update”, which is traditionally one of the most anticipated sessions of the ECTA Conference. This year we decided to organise the session around key thematic blocks emerging from recent CJEU and EU General Court case law.We will discuss topics such as consumer perception and market reality, weak marks and the scope of protection, procedural issues and preliminary injunctions, Brexit and territoriality, and finally parody and trade marks in light of the recent IKEA case.Our goal is to make the session practical, dynamic and highly interactive.3. Introduce the panel of your Conference session.I am delighted to moderate such an outstanding panel composed of experts representing different perspectives of trade mark law.Virginia Melgar from the EUIPO Boards of Appeal will bring the institutional and adjudicative perspective. Pierre-Yves de Harven, judge and experienced IP specialist, will share valuable judicial insights on recent developments in EU case law. Kristof Neefs, as a leading practitioner, will contribute the practical and strategic perspective from day-to-day litigation and enforcement practice.I believe this combination will create a very engaging and balanced discussion.4. Why should Conference participants join your session, and at whom in particular will it be directed?This session is designed for everyone working with EU trade marks and IP litigation - from experienced practitioners to younger lawyers looking to better understand recent trends in EU case law.We will focus not only on what the courts decided, but also on the practical implications of those decisions. The discussion will be highly interactive, with audience questions and practical examples, including controversial or unusual trade mark scenarios.Participants can expect practical takeaways, different viewpoints and lively debate rather than a traditional case-law lecture.5. Why should IP colleagues register for the ECTA Annual Conference?ECTA is one of the best opportunities to meet the European IP community in one place. The Conference combines high-quality substantive discussions with excellent networking opportunities and genuinely international perspectives.It is a unique place where practitioners, judges, academics, in-house counsel and EUIPO representatives can openly exchange views on the most current and challenging IP topics. Beyond the professional value, ECTA also creates a fantastic atmosphere that keeps people coming back every year.

By Judit Lantos (ECTA representative in the ETMD EP Advisory Committee and ECTA Mediation Committee Chair, Lantos Law, Hungary)We are pleased to inform ECTA members about the opening today of the new edition of the ETMD Education Programme organised by the EUIPO Academy for practitioners in EU trade mark and design law and practice.Applications can be submitted until 31 May 2026 (inclusive). The programme runs from September 2026 to March 2027.The EUIPO Trade Mark and Design Education Programmes (ETMD EP) for practitioners are tailored for IP professionals who, among other tasks, advise, assist, or represent clients or employers in EU trade mark and design matters. The programme provides in-depth legal and strategic training on EUIPO practice, ensuring participants can deliver expert advice aligned with the latest developments.The programme has 2 options:1. Instructor-led, partially onsite programme (limited to 60 participants, with exam)The programme includes interactive courses delivered both online and on-site in Alicante, with a maximum of 60 participants.It is an instructor-led, case-study-based learning programme, delivered partly onsite and subject to a tuition fee. Participants must pass an exam to obtain a certificate.The programme has been running since 2018, with several hundred alumni to date. Beyond in-depth training in EU trade mark and design law and practice, it also offers valuable networking opportunities.In this course you will learn about:The EUIPO and its online tools & services.The characteristics of European Union Trade Marks (EUTM) and EU Designs.The EUTM and EU design application processes, their respective requirements, key procedural matters, and be able to manage an application or renewal from start to finish.Opposition proceedings, and how to file, respond, and manage these types of procedures, while using the relevant EUIPO tools.Cancellation proceedings, their requirements and key aspects.Appeals, the role of the EUIPO Boards of Appeal, the procedural elements of an appeal and mediation.2. IP short training sessions (open to up to 200 participants)In addition to the full programme as described above, this year the programme has been extended to all IP professionals, maximum to 200 participants. It consists of short training sessions, and is designed to be followed independently. It is a fully online programme delivered, presentation-based learning, free of charge.-----We encourage ECTA members to participate in this programme.ECTA is actively involved in the project, with various members serving on the Examination Boards of both the practitioners’ and paralegals’ programmes, as well as on the ETMD EP Advisory Committee.

ECTA will also bring a copyright focus to its Conference programme, with a dedicated session on “The EUIPO Knowledge Center and a Comparison Between EU and US Systems”, moderated by Anke Nordemann-Schiffel (NORDEMANN, Germany).Learn more about this session from Anke:Introduce yourself and your link to ECTA.I am Anke Nordemann-Schiffel, co-founder of NORDEMANN, a Berlin-based IP firm dealing with all areas of IP. I myself spend most of my working hours with trade marks and copyright matters both nationally, internationally and, of course, at the EUIPO. I am also the President of GRUR, the German Association for Intellectual Property Law, which is close to ECTA. One of my first international conferences was ECTA in London in 2005, when I was pregnant and my luggage only made it to London on the final day of the conference…Introduce the topic of your Conference session.I will be moderating this year´s copyright session entitled “The EUIPO Knowledge Center and a Comparison Between EU and US Sytems”. Do not let yourself be misled by the lengthy title - the panel of three plus myself will discuss recent EU and US case law on what makes a protected work as well as the EUIPO´s activities to strengthen copyright in the EU. Our first preparatory call was so filled with everyone´s ideas that we much overran the time I had planned with.Introduce the panel of your Conference session.The panel stars Véronique Delforge from the EUIPO, Daniël Jongsma, Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki, and Jacqueline Lesser from IceMiller, US.Véronique Delforge is an IP lawyer originally from Belgium with extensive experience. She has been working at the EUIPO as a Copyright legal expert since 2020. Before joining the Office, she worked on copyright matters at DG Connect at the European Commission for 4 years, as a lawyer in private practice for almost 8 years before then.Daniël Jongsma teaches at the Hanken School of Economics, Helsinki. He is a distinguished pan-European IP scholar with a focus on the process of harmonisation of intellectual property law in the EU, the interface between intellectual property law and fundamental rights, and more generally the impact of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union on the national laws of the Member States.Jacqueline Lesser is a partner at IceMiller, Philadelphia, US, and the leader of the firm’s Advertising Group. Jackie has more than two decades of experience as an IP counselor, and litigator, with a focus on trade marks, copyrights, marketing, advertising and publicity rights. She litigates in federal courts throughout the US, before the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board (TTAB), the National Advertising Division of the Better Business Bureau (NAD), and the Copyright Claims Board (CCB).Why should Conference participants join your session, and at whom in particular will it be directed?Everyone active in IP should join the session. Copyright, designs and trade marks share so many overlaps, and the CJEU´s most recent cases on copyright protection for design objects and furniture will be fun and interesting to explore - much better than reading the actual decisions. The EUIPO´s copyright activities and projects are lesser known and thus a must to learn more about first-hand.Why should IP colleagues register for the ECTA Annual Conference?That is almost a no-brainer to me 😊 - the ECTA Annual Conference is one of the cornerstones of the IP year, and ECTA is so very relevant as an organization that no one should miss it. ECTA is a get-together of the IP community that is fun, inspiring and very welcoming to newbies and irregulars alike.To learn more about the Conference and register, please click here.

This year, ECTA brings something truly dynamic to its Conference programme: a live mock mediation, moderated by Judit Lantos (Lantos Law, Hungary) together with Mr. Sven Stürmann (President of the EUIPO BoA).Learn more about this unique session from Judit:1. Judit, introduce yourself and your link to ECTA.I am Judit Lantos, founder of Lantos Law in Budapest (Hungary), and I currently serve as Chair of the ECTA Mediation Committee. The Committee was established about 1,5 years ago, and I have had the privilege of serving as its first Chair since December 2024.Within ECTA, I have been actively involved for many years, including as former Chair of the WIPO-Link Committee, former Supervisory Board member, former member of the Harmonization Committee and local organizer of the Annual Conference in Budapest in 2017. These roles have allowed me to contribute to different aspects of ECTA’s work and to build strong connections within the IP community.The Mediation Committee is a young and very dynamic Committee, focused on promoting practical, business-oriented dispute resolution. As reflected in our mission, we aim to encourage dialogue, foster communication and support IP professionals in finding commercially meaningful solutions to disputes, beyond purely legal approaches.2. Introduce the topic of your Conference session.Our session is a live mock mediation, based on a realistic EU trade mark dispute between a well-established pharmaceutical company and a fast-growing start-up.Rather than discussing mediation in theory, we will demonstrate how it works in practice, from opening statements to negotiations and, ultimately, settlement. The session will show how legal arguments, business interests, and strategic considerations interact in a mediation setting and how parties can move from confrontation to a constructive solution.3. Introduce the panel of your Conference session.We have an outstanding and diverse panel bringing together practitioners and institutional expertise. The session will be co-moderated with Sven Stürmann, President of the Boards of Appeal at the EUIPO, and myself - we will also act as narrators, guiding the audience through the different phases of the mediation.The mediator will be Alexandra Crawcour, a leading mediator at the EUIPO Mediation Centre, who will lead the process and demonstrate how mediation works in practice. The parties will be represented by two teams:The Italian pharmaceutical company will be represented by Amanda Zahringer, a business advisor and dual-qualified solicitor in Ireland, acting as the client, and Ivett Paulovics, a dual-qualified lawyer in Italy and Hungary based in Milan and Vice-Chair of the ECTA Mediation Committee, acting as external counsel.The Irish start-up company will be represented by Carol Gormley of FRKelly, Ireland, and a member of the Irish Association of Patent and Trade Mark Attorneys (APTMA), together with Sean Cummings of Keltie, Ireland, also a member of APTMA. Together, they will bring the dispute to life in a highly interactive and engaging format.4. Why should Conference participants join your session, and at whom in particular will it be directed?This session is for anyone who would like to experience mediation in action rather than only hearing about it in theory. It will be particularly valuable for IP practitioners involved in proceedings before the EUIPO or national courts; for lawyers advising clients on selecting the most appropriate tools to resolve conflicts and achieve flexible, business-oriented solutions beyond the remedies typically available before courts; and for in-house counsels dealing with cross-border disputes. It will also be of particular interest to younger practitioners who wish to better understand negotiation dynamics and alternative dispute resolution.Considering that mediation is increasingly used in IP disputes, it is important for lawyers and IP practitioners to be familiar with this tool so that they can better support their clients as legal representatives in mediation procedures suggested by the authorities or by the adverse party.In this session, participants will gain practical insight into how parties articulate their positions and underlying interests, how a mediator facilitates dialogue and manages the process, and how creative, commercially meaningful solutions can emerge. The format is deliberately interactive and lively, offering an engaging and refreshing alternative to a traditional panel discussion.5. Why should IP colleagues register for the ECTA Annual Conference?The ECTA Annual Conference is one of the key events for IP professionals in Europe and beyond. It combines high-level substantive content with excellent networking opportunities and a strong sense of community.The Dublin programme offers a particularly rich and forward-looking agenda, covering key developments such as AI and its impact across different IP fields, ESG considerations in IP strategy, and sector-specific challenges in areas such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics and green technologies. These topics reflect how quickly the IP landscape is evolving and how closely legal, technological and business considerations are now interconnected.In this context, mediation and alternative dispute resolution provide an important complementary perspective, offering tools to address complex, cross-border conflicts in a flexible and commercially meaningful way.Whether you are a long-standing ECTA member or attending for the first time, the Conference is a unique opportunity to stay up to date, exchange ideas and connect with colleagues from across Europe and beyond in a collaborative and engaging environment.To learn more about the Conference and register, please click here.