Uwe mentioned at the opening ceremony that this year's conference will be extraordinary and Friday morning in Benidorm will not disappoint- the morning after the Gala night is always a time for farewells and rushing to the airport to go home (or to another conference) but if you can, don't  miss out on the last sessions!

MARQUES has the honour to be the first European conference to address the issue of indigenous intellectual property rights. The session will feature Ambassador Keith Harper, the first native American (Cherokee) to be appointed  as an American ambassador and US Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Council. Daphne Zografos Johnsson is  a Legal Officer who set up the Traditional Knowledge Division of WIPO. Marion Heathcote is a member of the IP Outer Borders team and a lead practitioner in this intersection of IP rights and indigenous culture, artwork and symbolism. The speakers will look at the 2 sides to the coin: indigenous people have not really taken advantage of the traditional IP protection methods because there is no concept of private ownership; however traditional methods might not be appropriate anymore. The team and MARQUES hope that this session will appeal to the audience as citizens of the worlds/ IP practitioners and aim at explaining how brand owners must be careful no to  step on indigenous peoples' rights. James Nurton will follow up with an interview in Managing IP.

The conference will then be summed up with the Lewis Gaze Memorial Scholarship and an update in CJEU case law by Jeremy Blum and Paul Maeyaert.