ECTA held the Round Table ‘Design ReEvolution’ in Alicante (Spain), in the afternoon of 13 February 2020, organised in collaboration with the University of Alicante.

The Round Table took place at the Calle San Fernando Building of the University and around 95 attendees among local practitioners, EUIPO representatives, university students and staff, joined the event, where speakers discussed ways of protecting Internet-related designs as well as the new versions of iconic designs.

During the first session, Mr. Sergio Rizzo (Abogados Daudén) and Ms. Virginia Melgar (EUIPO – Boards of Appeal) dealt with the topic of the protection of graphical user interfaces and icons.

The second session was divided into two parts. In the first part, Rogier Goos (Brantsandandpatents) and Justas Ivanauskas (EUIPO) commented on some recent cases concerning iconic designs, such as Porsche and Vespa, from both legal and designer’s perspective. In the second part, Michael Silverleaf QC (11 South Square) illustrated a couple of UK cases and Rogier Goos drew our attention to the consequences of some recent decisions and the design filing strategy.

Michael Silverleaf opened the last session with a presentation over the never-ending question of what constitutes art, and, in particular, applied art, and the interpretation of this concept by the CJEU. Professor Jorge Moya (University of Alicante) closed this session with a presentation on the potential consequences of the Cofemel decision and the importance of copyright when design protection fails.

ECTA President, Mr. Sozos-Christos Theodoulou, closed the event thanking the organizers and the audience.

The Round Table was followed by a networking cocktail event.

The presentations made during the Round Table are now available HERE.

The video of the Round Table will soon be available to members in the Private Section of this website/Library/Webinars.

Prepared in collaboration with Sergio Rizzo (Abogados Daudén)