As part of the series of blogs previewing this year’s Annual Conference workshops, we are delighted to host a guest post written by CTA President Ma Fu (pictured right)

Established in 1994, China Trademark Association (CTA) is a national-level professional organization in the field of trade marks and brands. It is responsible for promoting the Trademark Law, strengthening the self-discipline of the trade mark agency industry, serving trade mark and brand building, and promoting international communication of trade marks and brands.

There are two types of CTA members, namely corporate members and individual members, amounting to 1500. Corporate members are composed of enterprises, trade mark agencies and related organizations that have a certain influence in the field of trade marks and brands, involving various industries. Individual members are mainly well-known experts or scholars in the field of trade marks and brands.

In 2014, for the first time CTA sent representatives to attend the MARQUES Annual Conference and since 2016 CTA has sent representatives to attend the MARQUES Annual Conference every year.

At the invitation of MARQUES, in June this year, a CTA delegation visited the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. From 2017-2018, MARQUES sent representatives to attend the China Trademark Festival and held a MARQUES Forum during the China Trademark Conference.

On 20 September 2018, CTA will hold the CTA Workshop for the first time at the MARQUES Annual Conference.

The themes of the forum are China's Trademark Management System Reform and China's Administration and Judicial Protection of Well-known Trademarks. The workshop will introduce the progress of China's trade mark management system reform and the situation of China's administration and judicial protection of well-known trade marks to trade mark holders and other organizations and individuals in Europe and the whole world.

From CTA’s point of view, attending the MARQUES Annual Conference can deliver the Chinese voice to the international trade mark and brand field. Meanwhile, participating in the conference will help us learn more about the latest trends of trade mark law and international intellectual property rights in other countries, learn from the experience of MARQUES members, and consolidate and expand the achievements of international trade mark exchange and cooperation.