The MARQUES Unfair Competition Team has added information on Germany and Italy to its chart on self-regulatory organizations (SROs) for advertising and unfair competition matters.

The updated chart can be downloaded from the Team’s page on the MARQUES website (MARQUES log-in required).

The new information has been provided by Team members Carmen Castellano, Castellano IP - Studio Legale Avv. Castellano, Italy and Rani Mallick, Lubberger Lehment, Germany. The project is led by Team member Philippe Probst, Fuhrer Marbach & Partners, Switzerland.

The table already includes contributions from Finland, Switzerland, Turkey and the United States. It provides information for each jurisdiction on: the existence and identity of SROs; matters handled; rules, eligible parties and fees; procedure; penalties and enforceability.

Further countries will be added in due course.

For more information, please contact a member of the Unfair Competition Team.

Episode 15 of the Talking MARQUES podcast is now available on the MARQUES website and on Spotify.

In this episode, three members of the MARQUES Programming Team explain more about this year’s Annual Conference, including the plenary sessions, workshops and social events.

They also discuss things to do in Berlin, the networking opportunities at the Annual Conference and plans for future MARQUES events.

The participants in this episode are Claus Eckhartt, Bardehle Pagenberg, Germany; Tanya Meedom, Elmann IPR, Denmark; and Nicholas Foot, Sandoz International, Germany.

Claus chairs the Berlin Conference Team, Tanya is Vice-Chair of the Programming Team and Nick co-chairs the MARQUES Corporate Focus Group.

The theme of this year’s Conference is “In Brands We Trust: The Next Frontier” and registration is already open on the website here.

This episode lasts about 20 minutes. You can also listen to the 14 previous episodes of Talking MARQUES, which cover a wide range of trade mark, design and copyright topics.

The next episode of Talking MARQUES will be available later this year.

EUIPO held the third audit of the quality of cancellation decisions on 1, 14 and 15 March 2023.

Roland Mallinson and Guido Donath represented MARQUES and were among 16 users from 11 user associations who took part.

The participants checked a sample of 32 cancellation decisions against the EUIPO quality criteria. They reported “excellence” for eight decisions, “compliance” for 21 decisions and “actions needed” for three decisions.

So far, 25 SQAP audits have taken place since they were launched in 2017. The SQAP enable users of the trade mark and design systems to contribute directly to improving the quality of EUIPO’s decisions.

MARQUES has taken part in the SQAP sessions since they began. The next SQAP audit will be on opposition decisions in June 2023, followed by one on design invalidity decisions in September 2023.

More information is available on EUIPO’s website here and on the SQAP page here.

Photo taken from EUIPO website

You can now book your place at the 37^th MARQUES Annual Conference, which takes place in Berlin, Germany form Tuesday 19 to Friday 22 September 2023.

The theme of this year’s Conference is “In Brands We Trust: The Next Frontier” and sessions will address issues such as how diversity and the cultural environment will affect brand authenticity

There will be panel sessions on topics including piloting brands, the metaverse, people power, brands in a time of crisis, e-commerce, and next generation content.

There will also be a session on recent CJEU and EU General Court case law and one on current opportunities and challenges faced by WIPO.

On Thursday afternoon, delegates can choose between six workshops – on China, GIs, sustainability regulations, brand engagement, the rule of neutralisation and EU design law. Each of the workshops will be repeated, meaning you can attend two sessions.

Social events include a Welcome Reception (Tuesday), Cultural Reception at the Arminius Markthalle (Wednesday) and Gala Dinner (Thursday). There will also be a choice of tours on Thursday afternoon.

Registration is now available for both MARQUES members and non-members. There is an Early Bird discount available for MARQUES members until 30 June, so it may be worth joining MARQUES to take advantage of that.

There is a non-accommodation option and modular registration are also available.

Berlin is an iconic city with a unique history and MARQUES looks forward to returning there for the 37^th Annual Conference. We hope you can join us!

Europol and EUIPO have published the Procedure manual on handling misleading payment requests for intellectual property system users: Act smart against scammers!

According to EUIPO, the new manual contains an overview of the key issues that arise when facing a misleading invoice or other payment request; profiles of the fraudsters behind the scams; tips on how to identify misleading communications; and information on how applicants and IP office can protect themselves.

Europol estimates that 2% of IPR applicants and owners, or 8,000 entities, may be targeted by these schemes.

The threat goes beyond misleading invoices and can include scam emails during prosecution and renewal periods.

As most readers will be aware, EUIPO never sends invoices or payment requests by post or email concerning the registration or renewal of IP rights. 

MARQUES has a dedicated Anti-Fraud Task Force that monitors scam invoices and similar communications, working closely with IP offices. For more information on this topic, or to share any suspicious messages received confidentially, please contact a member of the Task Force.

Last month, over 1,000 people concerned with internet governance came together in Cancun, Mexico at ICANN76, including several members of the MARQUES Cyberspace Team. Progress was made on a number of items that will in time have an impact on all MARQUES members, as Nick Wood reports.

New gTLDs

The ICANN Board voted to proceed with the next round of new gTLDs, earmarking an initial $9 million for work up until the end of October.

An Implementation Recommendation Team is being formed from volunteers who will work with staff to establish how the policy recommendations, developed over five years by the Subsequent Procedures (SubPro) working group, will be practically implemented. This will include building the application mechanism, processes and procedures.

38 unresolved recommendations from SubsPro across 16 issues have yet to be resolved. The costs are not finalised nor is the timeline but an update is promised by the Board at the start of August.

Whois successor

Accurate up-to-date information on registrants is vital in the enforcement of rights and management of domain portfolios.

The ICANN board gave the green light to staff to develop a Registration Data Request Service (RDRS). RDRS will act as a centralised portal to receive user requests for non-public registration data and pass them on to the relevant registrar.

The decision on whether to provide the data will be made by the individual registrar (far from ideal), and any data disclosure will be made outside of the system. This pilot system will generate data on user demand over a two-year period and inform a future decision by ICANN on whether to build a fuller-functioning System for Standardized Access/Disclosure (SSAD).

It is important, therefore, that brand owners submit disclosure requests via the RDRS, even if those requests do not result in satisfactory disclosure of the data, so as not to feed the narrative that there is no problem with access to data. The RDRS is expected to be ready for launch in late November 2023.

DNS abuse

Negotiations to amend the Base Registry Agreement and Registrar Accreditation Agreement, specifically with respect to DNS abuse, were initiated by registries and registrars in December 2022.

DNS abuse is being defined as malware, botnets, phishing, pharming and spam (when spam serves as a delivery mechanism for the other forms of DNS Abuse listed here). The amendments will create an obligation for registries and registrars to take action to mitigate or disrupt DNS abuse. There will be a public comment period on the proposed changes in the coming months.

New CEO search

Goran Marby abruptly stepped down as ICANN CEO at the end of 2022 for health reasons, ending his six-year tenure leading the organisation. He was viewed as a safe pair of hands during the pandemic, but there was frustration across all parts of the ICANN community that little progress was made in a number of policy areas.

ICANN’s existing SVP of Global Stakeholder Engagement, Sally Costerton, was immediately installed as Interim CEO until a permanent appointment is made. A job description will be published at the end of June.

The Board is keen to hear from anyone on the desired qualities of the future CEO, and particularly on what outside forces ICANN will have to confront in the coming years which should shape those qualities. If you feel inspired, email your views to ceosearch2023@icann.org.

Nick Wood is Managing Director of Com Laude, a MARQUES Council member and member of the Cyberspace Team

The theme of this year’s World IP Day, which takes place today, is “Women and IP: Accelerating innovation and creativity”.

WIPO has a gallery celebrating innovative, creative and enterprising women around the world and a video competition, as well as a special issue of WIPO Magazine.

There are also video messages from WIPO Director General Daren Tang and WIPO Gender Champion Lisa Jorgenson. “It is harder for women and girls than men and boys to realise their creative and innovative potential and our data shows that women are using the IP system less than men. And that’s a loss for all of us. WIPO is working to close this gender gap in IP and make IP work for everyone everywhere,” said Mr Tang.

Events taking place to mark World IP Day are listed here.

Women in design

EUIPO has today published a study on Women in Design, which is available in 23 languages. It reveals a significant gender gap and wage disparity in the design industry in the EU. The study found that only 24% of designers in the EU are women, and it would take over 50 years to close the gap at the current pace. Women designers also earn 12.8% less on average than their male colleagues.

Only 21% of RCDs registered by EU-based owners listed at least one woman designer.

“With this new EUIPO study, focusing on women designers and their participation in the EUIPO’s Registered Community Design system, we hope to bring attention to the existing gender gap and to inspire more women to pursue careers in the field of design, promoting a more diverse and inclusive profession,” said EUIPO Executive Director Christian Archambeau in a statement.

According to the study, the products most frequently designed by women include pharmaceutical and cosmetics products, articles of adornment, and textile piece goods.

Women at MARQUES

Here at MARQUES we promote diversity in our membership and leadership and today we recognise the many women volunteers throughout the association. We particularly celebrate:

• Our 1^st Vice-Chair Claudia Pappas
• The 11 women serving on the MARQUES Council
• The 23 women who are chairs and vice-chairs of the MARQUES Teams

MARQUES sends warm wishes to all women involved in innovation, creativity and IP, and pledges to continue working to close the gender gap and ensure that everyone can fulfil their potential.