ECTA Committees are the platforms where the Association’s work is done and through which the Intellectual Property Law community shapes its European vision. Committees were all created to answer various developments in the European Union’s trade mark law, and are our response to the deep technological and societal trends impacting the Intellectual Property system over the past 40 years. But ECTA Committees are also looking ahead to the future, setting their sights beyond current trends to drive discussions in the wider intellectual property community.
 
Through Committees, ECTA assists its Members in understanding the full nature of these changes and the new possibilities that have opened up along them. Some Committees are devoted primarily to the legal issues while others focus on professional and ethical issues. As an association of IP professionals, it is of ECTA’s great concern that the changes within the intellectual property services industry do not negatively reflect on the level of quality the users of the IP system are receiving worldwide.
 
On the side of legal developments ECTA traditionally has committees devoted to EU trade mark law and harmonisation issues. As brand protection transcended the realms of the traditional trade mark law ECTA was gradually adding committees whose work focused on related and overlapping intellectual property rights in order to be able to follow the changes in doing business and assist its members in understanding the full nature of these changes together with the new possibilities that have opened up along them. Needless to say, following the EU trade mark law developments and providing feedback to them remains and will stay one of the main activities of the Association.