Last week, ECTA and EUIPO held their Bilateral Meeting at the EUIPO Headquarters in Alicante to discuss topics of mutual interest and importance, such as:

🔷 Latest development of the ongoing GI Reform and its future implementation;

🔷 EUIPO response to the war in Ukraine;

🔷 SME programme updates, European Cooperation Projects and other EUIPO projects in which ECTA takes part (such as e.g. SQAP);

🔷 Various procedural issues when it comes to representation before the Office, opposition proceedings, handling of multiple oppositions, and contentious proceedings;

🔷 EUIPO Guidelines and upcoming updates to the Guidelines revision cycles;

🔷 Key recent case law and a number of other practical IP topics.

ECTA was represented by Mladen Vukmir (President), Anna Ostanina (Head of Legal Affairs), Benjamin Fontaine (EUIPO-Link Committee Chair, GI Committee Member), Cristina Bercial-Chaumier (EUIPO-Link Committee Vice-Chair, Harmonization Committee Member), Sarka Petivlasova (EUIPO-Link Committee Secretary, Design Committee Member), Olivier Vrins (Geographical Indications Committee Member, ECTA Legal Adviser), Fabio Angelini (EUIPO-Link Committee Member, ECTA Copyright Committee Chair), and Klaudia Blach-Morysinska (EUIPO-Link Committee Member, ECTA Law Committee Chair).

We are extremely grateful to the EUIPO for the very productive meeting and for the fruitful cooperation and open dialogue we have established over the past years. We look forward to our future exchanges and cooperation when it comes to improvement of the IP landscape in Europe.