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:

🔷 New competencies and responsibilities of the EUIPO, alongside its forthcoming plans for collaboration with User Associations, international cooperation and various aspects of the future Strategic Plan of the Office;
🔷 Latest development on the agri and non-agri GIs reforms;
🔷 SME programme updates;
🔷 Various abuses of the IP system, such as abuse of the EUIPO User Area credentials;
🔷 Numerous procedural issues when it comes to representation before the Office, including cancellation proceedings, re-opening of the examinations, filing of evidence, extensions of time limits, rejoinders and others;
🔷 Key recent case law and a number of other practical IP topics.

ECTA was represented by Mladen Vukmir (ECTA President); Anna Ostanina (ECTA Head of Legal Affairs); Cristina Bercial (EUIPO-Link Committee Chair); Sarka Petivlasova (EUIPO-Link Committee Vice-Chair); Klaudia Blach-Morysinska (EUIPO-Link Committee Secretary); Benjamin Fontaine (Amicus Curiae Task Force Chair); Aitor Pomares (EUIPO-Link Committee Member); Isabel Cortes (EUIPO-Link Committee Member); Bartosz Krakowiak (EUIPO-Link Committee Member).

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.