GENEVA - The European Union Intellectual Property Office (EUIPO) liaison meetings bring together experts from the national and regional intellectual property offices of the EU Member States, candidate countries and countries from the European Free Trade Association (EFTA), as well as representatives from the European Commission and User Associations meet to discuss the latest developments in the area of trademarks and designs and exchange technical expertise, according to the official website of EUIPO.

The Liaison Meetings constitute an official forum to discuss technical and expert matters and therefore represent an important step towards the continuous development and sustainability of the European Union Intellectual Property Network (EUIPN).

During the session dedicated to Cooperation, the Liaison Meeting participants exchanged on the last measures taken to respond to the crisis in Ukraine, and particularly on the implementation of the European Union’s 11th package of sanctions, which the Office confirmed is still under consultation with the European Commission. The participants took advantage to reiterate their support for the Ukrainian people.

Apart from the traditional discussion and exchange on the European Cooperation Projects, the participants had the opportunity to listen to the OEPM and BOIP experience and benefits of being part of the EUIPN. They coincided in recognizing the importance of working together, exchanging knowledge among the network with the common aim of giving an always better IP system to the users.

In addition, the participants zoom out of the EU Region and exchanged on the International Cooperation sphere, focusing on the area of Eastern Partnership, where the EUIPO presented the plan to support Moldova, Georgia and Ukraine via the EU-Funded framework.

Finally, the Liaison Meetings group were informed about the upcoming new services to be provided within the SME Fund 2024, would the MBBC approve the package in their November 2023 joint meeting.

During the session dedicated to the Trade Mark on Tuesday October 24, 2023, the participants have acknowledged the proposal for common practices on CP13 “Trademarks applications made in bad faith”, which aims to establish a common understanding of the general notion of bad faith and of other related concepts, and on CP14 “Trade mark contrary to public policy or to accepted principles of morality, whose objective is to establish a common understanding of the concepts of public policy.

In addition, the group also acknowledged the proposal for project definition of CP16 “signs describing the subject matter of goods or services”, the next Convergence Project agreed for launch.  In accordance, the three proposals with be sent to the MBBC for approval.

The meeting featured lively exchanges of views on the impact of AI on IP and the regulation of the metaverse and Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). Discussions highlighted some key challenges, including how these new technologies would affect the examination of goods and services and how the digitalized world affect the territory of IP rights.