About ECTA

With more than 1500 members, coming from all Member States of the EU and beyond, ECTA promotes the knowledge and professionalism of the intellectual property law community in the fields of trade marks, designs, copyright and other intellectual property rights, within the European Union.

In these fields, we are a recognised discussion partner for the most important public and political bodies: we work hand in hand with EU Institutions, EUIPO, WIPO and other national and international organisations. Yearly official meetings with the European Commission, EUIPO and WIPO allow us to maintain a strong influence on the developments impacting our members. With our members, we influence the future of intellectual property rights policy and regulation.

ECTA, founded in 1980 now has 40 years’ experience in promoting its members’ knowledge and professionalism. For a long time known as the ‘European Communities Trade Mark Association’, ECTA was the primary non-governmental professional association involved in the introduction of the European Union’s Community trade mark system in 1996 and has remained actively involved in the refinement and improvement of this highly successful unitary trade mark system. This has been beneficial to ECTA members, many of whom have been actively involved in promoting, positively influencing and bringing about important changes in the fields of intellectual property in Europe.

ECTA provides an ideal forum for knowledge exchange and sharing, and is an accredited professional association in many countries for IP attorneys. Our association brings together lawyers, from private practices or the industry, judges, academics and various other IP-related professionals, who wish to maintain and expand their knowledge in the fields of intellectual property. We regularly publish position papers. A well-structured and informative members-only intranet website allows you to easily find the information which you require.

ECTA represents the common opinion of the European intellectual property law community. It refrains from taking positions on matters where there is not a common viewpoint within its membership and is not a lobbying organisation.

With this in mind, ECTA’s long-standing work has established it as the go-to expert body for EU and national decision-makers, European Council Presidencies, and the European Courts of Justice and international intellectual property organisations. Over the years, we have raised our members’ voice on questions such as the protection and use of trade marks, designs and domain names and related rights, such as copyright, geographical indications or unfair competition in the European Union.

Some examples are:

the harmonisation of the national laws of the EU Member States;
the EU Trade Mark Regulation and Directive;
the EU Design Regulation and Directive;
the organisation and regulation relative to the activities of the EUIPO;
the consideration of all questions arising from technological, societal and business trends affecting trade marks and other intellectual property fields, including the globalisation of markets and the development of the Internet economy.

THE ECTA SECRETARIAT
ECTA provides its members with a professional and service-minded secretariat. Our secretariat is based in Brussels, in close proximity to some of our key interlocutors, the European Commission, the European Council, the European Parliament and the EUIPO’s Brussels Liaison Office.