Roundtable: where designs meet trade marks

The almost unprecedented run of top-notch conferences, seminars and other events in recent months continues with the announcement of this forthcoming INTA roundtable. Sadly, the complexity of the subject matter and the grey area in which trade mark rights and design rights either overlap or don't quite meet up means that we need a great deal of prompting to get our heads around the topic.

The roundtable featured below is sadly not a piece of furniture at all, but a forum for disseminating further information about the tectonic plates of European design and trade mark law and the manner in which they grind against each other:

INTA EUROPE ROUNDTABLE 

Protection of product appearance

using trade marks and designs 

Thursday, 14 March 2013 

14:30 – 17:00  

Venue: Simmons & Simmons LLP, Claude Debussylaan 247, Amsterdam 

It is almost seventeen years since the first Community Trade Marks and almost ten years since the first Community Designs were registered by the Office for Harmonisation in the Internal Market. 

The protection of product appearance by trade marks and designs however remains a hot topic in the European Union. Over the last two years, the first design judgments have been handed down by the Court of Justice of the European Union. Also the second major pan-European dispute on design infringement has created significant new case-law. 

The roundtable will be an interactive session, whereby the speakers will discuss filing strategies for trade marks and designs. After the presentations, the participants will be divided into small groups and will be asked to come up with the best possible protection for their client. Their protection strategies will be then be tested: have they provided their clients enough protection to stop infringement? 

The roundtable will end with a discussion of the most recent case law in relation to the protection of product appearance. The sessions will be conducted in English. 

Speakers include:David Stone (Class 99 team member; partner at Simmons & Simmons LLP in London and an expert on design law; member of the Board of Directors of INTA, he also chairs the designs team of MARQUES and is author of three MARQUES reports on OHIM Registered Community Designs invalidity decisions).  

Hidde Koenraad (Senior-Associate, Vondst Advocaten, Amsterdam, with extensive experience in litigating and advising in the field of intellectual property, with a strong emphasis on trade marks, designs and copyrights. Active member of AIPPI, the Dutch Copyright Association, BMM and ECTA). 

Places are limited: applications for the roundtable can be sent via email to INTAroundtable@simmonssimmons.com