Learn more about this session from Anke:

1. 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…

2. 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.

3. 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).

4. 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.

5. 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.