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PTMG in Dublin, Day One

By Jeremy

Monday was Day One of the Pharmaceutical Trade Marks Group (PTMG) spring conference, held this year at the Four Seasons Hotel, Dublin. Its theme was "Creating, Building and Maintaining Brand Equity". A gathering of some 300 people attended the first two sessions and then made their way to the hallowed halls of Trinity College, to partake in a delicious repast and what looked suspiciously to the IPKat like plenty of pre-drink drinks.

First to the podium was Gregor Vos (Klos Morel Vos & Schaap, Amsterdam). Gregor gave this year's annual review of significant recent cases. Professing himself to be "biased", Gregor treated the audience to a fairly damning review of various European Court of Justice decisions, reserving plenty of spleen for that Court's rulings in G-Star, Opel and Washing Tablets and for the Court of First Instance ruling in SUN/SUNPLUS. In short, he made it plain that he was on the side of trade mark applicants against stingy granting authorities and on the side of plaintiffs against alleged infringers. It was fast and furious stuff, with a few sharp jibes against harmonisation in general, and the concept of the Benelux in particular (though the IPKat will always consider EUROPOLIS a rotten mark to make a fight over).

Next to speak was the IPKat's team blogger Jeremy, who delivered this year's Alan Cox Memorial Lecture: "Healthy, Wealthy and Wise: Trade Marks and Non-Proprietary Names Revisited". Jeremy sought to place the concept of the INN within the relationship between the trade mark and the brand, then questioned the legal basis upon which the World Health Organization purported to place words in the public domain and speculated as to the apparent reluctance of the WHO and WIPO to work more closely in this field. He explained that this talk was very much "work in progress" and called for comments and suggestions from the audience since there was little in the way of classical legal literature or web-based information as to how the INN system really worked.

Following a lengthy post-lecture coffee-break-cum-networking interlude, dinner at Trinity College was a most pleasant way for most of us to round off the day. Dinner concluded with a breathtaking (if you were dancing) display of Irish dance by a group of wholesome lads and lasses who performed under the name Celtic Mist. And so to blog ...

Full post as published by IPKat on April 01, 2008 (boomark / email).