The ECTA delegation composed of Carina Gommers (ECTA President), Benjamin Fontaine (2nd Vice-President), Anna Ostanina (Head of Legal Affairs), and Peter Müller (Chair of the ECTA Patent Committee) held the first bilateral meeting with the EPO yesterday. This meeting presented an opportunity to introduce ECTA’s work on patents and the ECTA Patent Committee. We also appreciated the chance to learn more about EPO’s recent developments and activities impacting our profession. We look forward to strengthening our collaboration and having more regular exchanges between our patent experts and the EPO representatives.We are also pleased to welcome several EPO colleagues at today’s ECTA ®ETREAT “UPC - A Success Story?” at the German Patent and Trade Mark Office in Munich - it promises to be a full day of very interesting discussions!

This week, ECTA took part in the annual European Sister Organisations’ (ESO) meeting, held this time in Munich, Germany and jointly organised by ECTA and GRUR.ECTA was represented by 1st Vice-President Paola Ruggiero, 2nd Vice-President Benjamin Fontaine, and Head of Legal Affairs Anna Ostanina.The meeting brought together representatives from APRAM, BMM, CITMA, ECTA, GRUR, MARQUES and UNION-IP for discussions on key challenges, joint initiatives, and recent developments in IP legislation and practice as well as benchmarking of practices in some strategic areas.The ESO meeting continues its important tradition of cooperation and knowledge exchange, fostering closer ties, coordinated actions and more impactful advocacy efforts between European IP associations.This meeting was held a historical venue, the TUM library, and included a walking tour of the city and a visit to the Lenbachhouse Gallery, thus providing an opportunity for more informal exchanges between participants.We express heartfelt thanks to all the participants of the meeting and their valuable contributions, as well as to our co-host, GRUR, for helping to plan the culturally rich programme adding a special touch to the meeting.

Last week, ECTA and the EUIPO held their annual Bilateral Meeting at the EUIPO Headquarters in Alicante, discussing a wide range of topics of mutual interest relating to various IP rights and their enforcement.We are grateful to the EUIPO, the Executive Director João Negrão and his team for the hospitality and warm welcome in Alicante, as well as for the productive exchange, strengthening the fruitful cooperation we have built over the years.Among the topics discussed were: the EUIPO mediation procedure and clarifications around the scope of the Mediation Centre; the current approach to trade marks covering software; the design novelty search database; clarification on the application of certain articles of the CIGI Regulation; updates from the Copyright Knowledge Center; the implementation and administration of Text and Data Mining databases; the issue of undefended oppositions in the context of Chinese applications; the functioning of IPEP and the role of legal representatives; the IP landscape foresight exercise; AI-generated preliminary opinions on oppositions, and AI-generated evidence and submissions. More information about the updates received will be shared soon with our members.ECTA was represented by Carina Gommers (President), Paola Ruggiero (First Vice-President), Benjamin Fontaine (Second Vice-President), Anna Ostanina (Head of Legal Affairs), Cristina Bercial-Chaumier (EUIPO-Link Committee Chair), Sarka Petivlasova (EUIPO-Link Committee Vice-Chair), Stephanie Wuyts (EUIPO-Link Committee Secretary), Carlo Sala (EUIPO-Link Committee member), Aitor Pomares (Geographical Indications Committee Chair), Stoyan Sirakov (Anti-Counterfeiting Committee Chair), Judit Lantos (Mediation Committee Chair).Our thanks also go to the ECTA EUIPO-Link Committee team, whose expertise is essential for the success of this collaboration and regular exchange. 

This update is to help ECTA members and IP community at large stay informed about upcoming ECTA events and plan ahead. Registration links and further details will be shared via direct email communication in due course.If you are not a member and would like to receive updates on ECTA events and activities, please email ecta@ecta.org to be included on our mailing list.17 April 2026ECTA UPC Coffee by ECTA Patent Committee “UPC approach to inventive step”📍  Online (every second Tuesday of the month) Presenter: Filippo Pretato (DeosIP)Open to members only / Link to join regularly sent via email and available on the ECTA private site17-20 June 2026ECTA 44th Annual Conference “Green Light for Growth” 📍  Dublin, IrelandOpen to all / Early bird registration is open until March 31 -  Register here.15-17 October 2026ECTA Autumn Meeting 📍  Porto, Portugal Open to ECTA Supervisory Board and Committee members only / More information will follow.Spring 2027ECTA ®ETREAT📍 The Hague, The Netherlands In collaboration with Benelux Office for Intellectual PropertyMore information will follow.16-19 June 2025ECTA 45th Annual Conference  📍  Destination to be unveiled soon!