ECTA is continuing to actively follow the European IP policy developments and contribute to all relevant legal discussions in the interest of our members and the IP Community at large. Despite the current circumstances which make physical meetings difficult, ECTA took part last week in a number of online meetings with the European Commission representatives. This allowed us to discuss and present the views of ECTA members on the key IP policy developments.

The meetings were held with relevant DGs (DG CONNECT, DG JUST, DG GROW, DG TRADE, DG AGRI) and the Permanent Representation of Portugal in the EU on the most important topics of the IP agenda in Europe at this moment, including:

• Development of the new IP Action Plan;
• Digital Services Act Package consultation;
• Reform of the Design legislation;
• Advancement of the “strengthening GIs” initiative of Policy Reform;
• Harmonisation of the main provisions concerning the scope of protection of GIs and future development of the tools (such as eAmbrosia);
• Open issues related to IP rights in the context of Brexit;
• Ongoing trade negotiations with third countries where IP protection issues are very important;
• Discussions regarding the Unified Access Model for gTLD, Privacy Shield and issues related to the cross-border transfer of data;
• Many other topics of interest to our members, their work and the projects ongoing within the ECTA Committees.

The meetings were attended by the ECTA Board of Directors (President, Anette Rasmussen; 1st Vice President, Mladen Vukmir; 2nd Vice President, Carina Gommers; Secretary General, Carolin Kind; Treasurer, Jordi Güell) and the ECTA Head of Legal Affairs (Anna Ostanina).

Some of the meetings were also supported by representatives from our specialised ECTA Committees, such as the Geographical Indications Committee Chair (Paola Ruggiero) and the Chairs of the newly created Data Committee (Delia Belciu) and International Trade Committee (Renate Pouw), focusing on several of the above-mentioned topics.

Maintaining direct contact and open dialogue with our colleagues within the European Commission, Parliament, Council, EUIPO, WIPO and other institutions, organisations and associations, is highly important to ECTA and is an integral part in our pursuit of the balance of IP rights.